Rural areas in many parts of the U.S. experience population decline from outmigration. Geographic mobility has long been a contributing factor to the social and economic instability of rural communities; high-achieving and ambitious youth are inclined to leave rural areas to take advantage of the expansive economic opportunities and cultural and…

An extended body of research has documented the outmigration of the "best and brightest" youth from rural areas. Some of this scholarship has suggested that rural schools and educators may be complicit in this process as they devote extra attention and resources to the highest achieving students--those most likely to leave their rural…

Adolescents who grow-up in rural areas often experience a tension between their attachment to the rural lifestyle afforded by their home community and a competing desire to gain educational, social, and occupational experiences that are only available in metropolitan areas. While these diverging pressures are well-documented, there is little…

The lack of parental and community support is one of the reasons educators say rural students have been among the least likely to go to college. Rural areas have a 27 percent college-enrollment rate for 18- to 24-year-olds, according to a 2007 report from the National Center for Education Statistics, its most recent, compared with the national…

The Mid-South Region of Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi as a long history of pervasive poverty and educational underachievement. According to the U.S. Census Bureau (2008), the poverty level of residents in the Mid-South Region is higher than the national average. Consequently, many of the region's best and brightest students of all…

Purpose: By reviewing the related literature on the Jiaoshi Pinren Zhi (JPZ) system, this paper seeks to indicate that the implementation of JPZ not only has led to domestic brain drain and the imbalance of teachers' qualities between different areas and schools, but also has violated children's equal rights to education guaranteed by the…