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Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Study refutes rural 'brain drain' theory; high achievers are not more likely to leave home

The brightest and most ambitious rural students are not more inclined than their counterparts to leave home for urban areas, and the ones that do leave often possess a desire to return home at some point, says a study published in the American Education Research Journal, Savannah Wooten reports for the Daily Yonder.

The study "found little evidence for the assertion that teachers and school administrators contribute to brain drain by 'grooming' their best students to leave," Wooten writes. "The study showed that these interactions do not have a significant impact on the students’ decisions to stay or leave."

While local economic conditions and future employment opportunities are the main reasons students leave rural areas, the study found that the "desire to return home is linked to high-achievers’ stronger feelings of community engagement and connection," Wooten writes. "In particular, high-achieving students who have thrived in and benefited from life in a rural community are more likely to feel connected to it. Thus, these students are more likely to express a desire to return home than their nonacademic counterparts."

The study was conducted through "educational sorting," where "each student was placed in a subcategory based on academic achievement and residential aspirations, allowing the researchers to survey and analyze each 'type' of student," Wooten writes. "These groups were asked about their residential aspirations after graduation, creating the 'stayers' and the 'leavers' categories. From these two divisions, four groups were created: 'achiever stayers,' 'achiever leavers,' 'nonacademic stayers' and 'nonacademic leavers.'" (Read more)

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