This study examines the outcomes of non-school internships hosted by two Appalachian Ohio organizations: Rural Action and Building Bridges to Careers (BB2C). As intermediary organizations, these entities work outside the boundaries of formal schooling to address issues of youth outmigration and sustainable community development through high school…

Rural Appalachia encompasses a region of the United States represented by unique cultural strengths and systemic challenges. To meet their students' career and college needs, school counselors working in rural Appalachia must understand the cultural nuances of the region. Consensual qualitative research (CQR) methodology revealed five domains and…

This empirical study provides a rare glimpse inside one classroom setting to explore the ways one high school Civics teacher taught for pluralist citizenship in his rural community, in anticipation of looming urbanization. This study demonstrates concrete ways of teaching and learning to navigate difference and conflict in seemingly homogeneous…

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand the lived experiences of rural students at two selective four-year colleges. Using the framework of cultural, social, and academic capital, I explored aspects of 17 rural college students' experiences that show how they are able to attain success at college in spite of their potentially…

This study examined the potential of a residency/concurrent enrollment program to support rural students that are interested in the field of education. With 17 students in the program, the goals were to make a career in teaching more accessible to rural high school students through concurrent enrollment, to help future teachers solidify their…

This study investigated the experiences and coping strategies of adolescent girl learners from child-headed families in the Shiselweni region of Swaziland. Forty (40) girls whose ages ranged from 13-18 years were participants in the study and were selected through purposive sampling in five selected rural schools. Data were collected on the…

This study examined whether recent disruptive events would increase the likelihood of high school dropout among both rural and urban youths, and whether the types of disruptive events preceding dropout would be different in rural vs. urban environments. Based on interviews conducted with early school leavers and matched at-risk schoolmates (N =…

The recent legislation calls for attention to be given to rural education. Although the minority of the Georgia population lives in rural areas, school counselors play many roles in the lives of students in rural areas due to limited resources. This review summarizes the current literature on strategies utilized by school counselors in rural…

The Coalition of Essential Schools (CES) has existed for thirty years and includes hundreds of public schools that are diverse in size, population, and programmatic emphasis. A qualitative grounded theory approach is utilized to describe how three rural (non-urban/suburban) high schools operationalize CES Common Principles. This research documents…

While empirical studies on rural education have defined many of the socioeconomic factors associated with rural students nationally, there is a lack of definitive and comprehensive research defining the benefit or value of career technical education for rural California high school students. Consequently, this lack of research may in turn…

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…

The purpose of the study was to explore rural high school learners' experience of mathematics anxiety in academic settings. Mathematics anxiety has been found to have an adverse effect on confidence, motivation and achievement. This quantitative study is exploratory and descriptive in nature. The participants were 403 learners doing mathematics in…

Rural schools face the challenges of motivating and retaining students, often in the face of severe resource constraints. This paper synthesizes fifteen years of the author's rural research on secondary students' school-related motivation, distilling it into strategic principles for rural teachers and administrators. Effective motivational…

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…

The purpose of this study was to develop a substantive theory for community development by school-based agriculture programs through grounded theory methodology. Data for the study included in-depth interviews and field observations from three school-based agriculture programs in three non-metropolitan counties across a Midwestern state. The…