Data provided by the 1981-82 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) were used to study the citizenship and social studies achievement of rural 13-year-olds. The NAEP extreme rural sample included 901 13-year-olds from schools in areas with less than 10,000 people and many farmers or farm workers in residence. School size in this sample…

A revised form of the Scale of Children's Attitudes Toward Handicaps (SCATE), which provides a breakdown of attitudes toward specific disabilities, was administered to 332 children in grades 2 through 6. The SCATE was shown to be reliable. The ranking of most positive attitudes to least was: nonhandicapped, learning disabled, hearing impaired,…

A questionnaire was designed to survey Logan County (Kentucky) students who withdrew from school during the 1976-77 and 1977-78 school years. Of the 130 survey instruments circulated, 37 (28%) were returned. A comparison of six demographic variables, based on school records, revealed that the respondents and the original population were similar on…

If youth employment programs for rural areas are to be successful in helping rural youth to find employment that is both desirable and developmental, the diversity of ability, skills, needs, life goals, and particular circumstances of these young people must be taken into consideration. According to a 1976 study by Kuvlesky and Edington, there is…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) was designed to measure knowledge, skills, and attitudes of young Americans at various ages in 10 learning areas, and to measure educational attainment over time. Community categories used in NAEP research were High and Low Metro, Urban Fringe, Main Big City, Medium City, Small Places…

This preliminary report describes the planning efforts undertaken by local demonstration projects involved in the development of Texas' State Plan for Early Childhood Development. Thirteen projects were begun in 1973 to demonstrate various ways in which the state government could work with local government officials, public agencies, parents, and…

Research objectives were to present and analyze a causal model of educational attainment and to include with parental socioeconomic status the number of siblings as an intervening social origin variable impacting on attitudes and attainment. Data were obtained from a three-wave longitudinal study (1966, 1968, and 1972) of 221 white nonmetropolitan…

The major purpose of this paper is to provide information about occupational status orientations of Negro youth through analysis of data obtained from a recent study of high school sophomores residing in Texas. The specific objective of the research was to explore rural and urban differences among Negro boys on the following aspects of…

Since there is no private property in the Soviet Union, social status is largely determined by education. Consequently, the educational levels of rural youth in all the Union Republics are nearly identical, while among the older generations of rural inhabitants there are still definite differences. In Estonia, for example, the educational level of…

Analyzing the effects of higher education accessibility, the present state of difficulties re: accessibility, and the functioning of various means of accessibility compensation, this paper presents the development of Polish education in terms of the social, political, and economic systems operative during the inter-war period (1918-39) and the…

Working class immigrant youth are frequently more successful in school than nonimmigrant students of similar background if they receive all their schooling in their new homeland. This article explores the forces that allow the children of Punjabi Sikh farm families to succeed academically in spite of severe handicaps. (VM)

Examines how well structural and social psychological variables explain occupational aspirations of 447 rural, low-income southern youth during preadolescence, adolescence, and young adulthood (contacts were made in 1969, 1975, and 1979). Finds results vary from Ginsburg's theory of three stages with occupational expectations declining rapidly…

Describes the results of survey of 1,100 grade 5, 8, and 11 students to determine their knowledge of and attitudes toward world affairs. Notes that age, sex, and class were the most important correlates and that children were only marginally more knowledgeable about domestic politics than international affairs. (SB)

This paper examines rural conditions from three perspectives: education, demographics, and economics from national, state and regional data sources; Rural Attitude Survey data from students at Western Carolina University in the Appalachian mountain region; and concerns of teachers about education in the region derived from focus group discussions.…

America's substance abuse epidemic has come to rural America. Adults in small metropolitan and rural areas are just as likely as those in urban America to use and abuse illegal drugs, alcohol, and tobacco. Young teens in small metropolitan and rural areas are more likely to abuse substances than those in large metro areas. Based on a wide variety…