After a brief review of the achievements and the problems in compulsory education enrollment in the thirty years since the reform and opening up, this study analyzes the current compulsory education enrollment and dropout rates in China's least-developed regions and the factors affecting school enrollment based on survey data from a small sample of schools. The study finds that although the enrollment rate in junior middle schools remains low and dropout rates are still very high in some regions, it is quite likely that significant decreases in the dropout rate have occurred in junior middle schools of poor regions in recent years. (Contains 3 tables and 6 notes.)