Economic factors that influence educational performance in rural schools

This paper examines the value that young people in rural areas place on education. It employs survey data of over 700 youths in four central Appalachian school districts, OLS regression techniques, and an ordered probit model in a human capital framework. Students who are less willing to move and who have less positive perceptions of local employment opportunities will have less positive attitudes toward education and will perform more poorly in school. Those who are more willing to move place a higher value on education and perceive education as a means of leaving the rural community.