While many efforts to reform high schools target large cities, a similar minority located at the fringes of American culture has been relatively overlooked. Low-income, rural students suffer many of the same social maladies--such as severe poverty and widespread drug abuse--as urban minority children, and they are comparably disadvantaged when it…

In 2004, the Center for Rural Pennsylvania contracted with Pennsylvania State University to begin a longitudinal study of rural Pennsylvania school students to understand their future aspirations, the factors influencing these aspirations, whether their plans change as they age, and if they attain their goals and plans. The main research questions…