Despite the large contingent of students living in rural areas, existing research on the processes that precede the college enrollment of rural adolescents is limited. With a particular focus on gender, this study investigated rural adolescents' perceptions of family and place and how these perceptions related to their educational aspirations and subsequent college enrollment using a nationwide sample of rural adolescents (N = 3456; 52.5% female). Female adolescents reported higher academic achievement, educational aspirations, parental expectations, and family responsibility and enrolled in two-year and four-year institutions at greater rates compared to male adolescents, who reported significantly higher rural identity and perceptions of job opportunities in the rural community. Utilizing a multiple group moderated mediation approach, the results provided evidence that adolescents' increased perceptions of their parents' educational expectations were associated with increased educational aspirations and college enrollment and that adolescents' increased perceptions of job opportunities in their rural community were associated with decreased educational aspirations. In addition, the results showed that gender moderated the relation between perceptions of job opportunities in the rural community and postsecondary enrollment. These findings highlight how the developmental resources of family and place relate to adolescents' educational aspirations and subsequent postsecondary enrollment.

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Despite national calls for increasing diversity and inclusion within science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), inequitable recruitment and retention strategies remain commonplace. Inherent to many strategies is a lack of specificity in attending to the needs, desires, and cultures of individuals who are minoritized at the intersections of race, gender, and class through the use of broad, sweeping classifications such as “Women of Color.” Using critical race feminism, we engaged in a meta‐synthesis of recent peer‐reviewed, empirical STEM education articles that used the term “Women of Color” to identify (a) how the term “Women of Color” was defined, (b) who was and was not represented by this term and (c) and how research findings accounted for the presence of WOC. We provide a critical discussion of how terminology is used and a call for specificity in equitable and justice‐oriented STEM programming.

Using the nationally representative High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09), this study documents that rural and small-town students were significantly less likely to enroll in postsecondary STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) degree programs, compared with their suburban peers. This study also shows that schools attended by rural and small-town students offered limited access to advanced coursework and extracurricular programs in STEM and had lower STEM teaching capacity. Those opportunities to learn in STEM were linked to the widening geographic gaps in STEM academic preparation. Overall, our findings suggest that during high school rural and small-town students shifted away from STEM fields and that geographic disparities in postsecondary STEM participation were largely explained by students’ demographics and precollege STEM career aspirations and academic preparation.

This study investigated the social network system of African American early adolescents (N = 237) in rural, low-wealth schools, specifically in terms of networks with norms strongly favoring effort and achievement. Networks with norms favoring effort and achievement were more likely to be central to the social system at the end of the school year. Subsequent analyses focused on boys (n = 103) and the effects of affiliation in networks with norms that strongly favored effort and achievement. Twenty-four percent of boys sustained membership in these networks and experienced greater school valuing and likeability, but reduced admiration among peers, net of scores at the beginning of the school year. The results of the study stand to inform both an understanding of positive peer group affiliations of minority boys and intervention work with this population by clarifying developmental mechanisms that contribute to positive school adaptation among rural African American boys.

Economic, occupational, and social shifts in rural economies have influenced nuanced changes in the educational and occupational aspirations of rural adolescent women and men. However, there is limited contemporary research that examines the aspirations of rural adolescents at the beginning of the 21st century. Drawing on a sample of 8,756 rural adolescents in the United States, we examine how familial, geographic, and economic variables influence gender-related differences in educational and occupational aspirations. Findings revealed significant gender differences, favoring girls, in youth's educational aspirations, occupational aspirations, and aspirations for nontraditional careers. Results highlight the importance of contextual variables such as parental expectations, family income, and motivation variables in predicting gender-related aspirations of rural youth.

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Semistructured interviews were conducted with 15 deans and directors of nursing programs across the United States to gain an understanding of how Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)-prepared nurses seeking academic positions are hired and used in schools of nursing. Interviews sought to gain information regarding (a) differences and similarities in the roles and responsibilities of DNP- and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)-prepared faculty, (b) educational advancement and mentoring of DNP-prepared nurse faculty, (c) recruitment of doctorally prepared nurse faculty, and (d) shortages of nursing faculty. DNP- and PhD-prepared nurse faculty are hired for varying roles in baccalaureate and higher degree schools of nursing, some similar to other faculty with master's degrees and others similar to those with PhDs; in associate degree in nursing programs, they are largely hired for the same type of work as nurse faculty with master's degrees. Regardless of program or degree type, the main role of DNP-prepared faculty is teaching.