Crites' Career Maturity Inventory (CMI) was administered to rural eighth grade Anglo and Mexican-American students. Test-retest reliability, internal consistency, and validity are reported by sex and ethnicity. Data analyses indicate that questions may be raised regarding Crites' postulated monotonic relationship of career maturity to grade and Competency Test scale reliability. Another finding was that career maturity is considerably lower for Mexican-American students than Anglo students and that both groups responded differently than did the norm group reported in the CMI Manual. It is concluded that caution should be employed when using the CMI with rural eighth grade youth. (Author)