Differences between educational aspirations, expectations, and abilities of rural male seniors based upon their participation or non-participation in high school vocational agriculture programs were analyzed. Data were gathered from classroom questionnaires administered to 517 seniors, of whom 400 had had one or more years of vocational agriculture instruction and 117 had received no vocational agriculture instruction. Levels of significance were obtained by employing the chi-square statistical technique. Findings indicated: (1) A highly significant negative relationship was found between participants in vocational agriculture programs and educational aspirations, (2) Students participating in vocational agriculture were lower in educational abilities at a highly significant level, (3) More seniors in the vocational agriculture group than in the non-vocational agriculture group were older, resided on farms, and came from larger families with low or middle income, (4) More parents of vocational agriculture seniors exhibited low levels of formal education, (5) Seniors in both groups were influenced most in their educational aspirations by immediate members of their families, and (6) Students with relatively low educational aspirations and expectations were receiving little or no encouragement from the school atmosphere or their families to continue their formal education beyond high school. (DM)