Extension Service study identifies six characteristics of communities that help rural youth succeed

Rural youth who aspire to earn more than their parents did can find that goal hard to reach, but some rural communities are seeing much more success on that front than others. Researchers led by Harvard economist Raj Chetty, in collaboration with the National 4-H Council and the Cooperative Extension Service of the nation's land-grant universities, conducted more than 200 in-person interviews in some of those communities to find out what they're doing right.

The communities were in the Texas Panhandle, Minnesota, North Dakota and Nebraska. The study, published today, outlines six common factors those communities all have that support upward mobility for youth:

• A high expectation that youth will 'opt in' and work hard to acquire the skills to build a better future; a low tolerance for opting out.
• Strong, informal support systems, with neighbors helping neighbors.
• An early focus on career pathways.
• A wealth of opportunities for youth to build life skills, regardless of the community's size
• Many potential challenges to accessing opportunities, but creative solutions for overcoming them.