Abstract
Given a revived national discourse about rural populations, more educational research on rural students is necessary, including ways that rural students transition to college and the success (or lack thereof) that they experience once there. However, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has changed the definition of rurality used in each iterative dataset over the last few decades, casting doubt on the consistency of what is meant by the term rural. The purpose of this study is to: (a) communicate to the educational research audience various ways of defining rural students, and specifically how NCES has changed their definition of rurality over their last three major data collections; (b) demonstrate how conclusions about rural students’ and their college degree completion may differ based on these alternate NCES definitions; and (c) discuss how this specific example using NCES data relates to the wider landscape of research on rural students. Results show that conclusions about college degree completion change depending on the definition of rurality used for analysis. Therefore, the education research community should consider the options for defining rural students, report transparently about the choices made, consider the sensitivity of results to the definition of rurality, and ultimately build a more robust body of literature concerning rural students’ college success. Gaining definitional clarity will be beneficial, particularly for those who wish to translate their research into practical action for the benefit of rural students.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.
Notes
We note that an additional issue for researchers to consider is the recategorization of geographical areas based on population changes over time, but addressing this issue is beyond the scope of this brief.
This is not strictly true for the most recent HSLS dataset, as NCES gathered data from 9th graders rather than 10th graders and followed a different data collection strategy than previous collections, making comparisons over time less appropriate.
References
Brown, S., & Fischer, K. (2017, December 29). A dying town. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from https://www.chronicle.com/interactives/public-health.
Burdick-Will, J., & Logan, J. R. (2017). Schools at the rural–urban boundary: Blurring the divide? The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science,672(1), 185–201.
Byun, S., Meece, J. L., & Irvin, M. J. (2012). Rural–nonrural disparities in postsecondary educational attainment revisited. American Educational Research Journal,49(3), 412–437. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831211416344.
Byun, S. Y., Irvin, M. J., & Meece, J. L. (2015). Rural–nonrural differences in college attendance patterns. Peabody Journal of Education,90(2), 263–279.
Curtin, T. R., Ingels, S. J., Wu, S., Heuer, R., & Owings, J. (2002). National education longitudinal study of 1988 base-year to fourth follow-up data file user’s manual. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement, National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved from https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2002/2002323.pdf.
Heeringa, S., West, B. T., & Berglund, P. (2010). Applied survey data analysis. Boca Raton, FL: Chapman & Hall.
Ingels, S. J., Pratt, D. J., Rogers, J. E., Siegel, P. H., Stutts, E. S., & Owings, J. A. (2004). Education longitudinal study of 2002: Base year data file user’s manual (NCES No. 2004-405). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved from http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED484410.
Isserman, A. M. (2005). In the national interest: Defining rural and urban correctly in research and public policy. International Regional Science Review,28(4), 465–499.
Johnson, K. M. (2012). Rural demographic change in the new century: Slower growth, increased diversity. The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars’ Repository. Retrieved from https://scholars.unh.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.ecosia.org/&httpsredir=1&article=1158&context=carsey.
Jones, M., Ewald, M., & McKown, C. (2017). Understanding rural–urban divides requires a complex spectrum of definitions. Retrieved from https://www.wiscontext.org/putting-rural-wisconsin-map.
Koricich, A. (2014). The effects of rurality on college access and choice. Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association Annual Conference, Philadelphia, PA. Retrieved from http://www.aera.net/Newsroom/Recent-AERA-Research/-Effects-of-Rurality-on-College-Access-and-Choice.
Koricich, A., Chen, X., & Hughes, R. P. (2018). Understanding the effects of rurality and socioeconomic status on college attendance and institutional choice in the United States. The Review of Higher Education,41, 281–305.
Long, J. S. (1997). Regression models for categorical and limited dependent variables. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
Monkovic, T. (2016, November 1). Why does education translate to less support for Donald Trump? The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/02/upshot/why-does-education-translate-to-less-support-for-donald-trump.html.
National Center for Education Statistics. (n.d.). School locale definitions. Washington, DC: US Department of Education, Institute for Education Sciences. Retrieved from https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/ruraled/definitions.asp.
Office of Management and Budget (2000). Standards for defining metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas; Notice. Federal Register, 65(249). Retrieved from https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2000-12-27/pdf/00-32997.pdf.
Pappano, L. (2017, January 31). Voices from rural America on why (or why not) to go to college. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/31/education/edlife/voices-from-rural-america-on-why-or-why-not-go-to-college.html.
Ratcliffe, M., Burd, C., Holder, K., & Fields, A. (2016). Defining rural at the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey and geography brief. Retrieved from https://www2.census.gov/geo/pdfs/reference/ua/Defining_Rural.pdf.
Turley, R. N. L. (2009). College proximity: Mapping access to opportunity. Sociology of Education,82(2), 126–146.
U.S. Department of Education. (2017, April 19). Eligibility: Small, rural school achievement program. Retrieved from https://www2.ed.gov/programs/reapsrsa/eligibility.html.
van Buuren, S. (2012). Flexible imputation of missing data. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
Wells, R. S., Manly, C. A., Kommers, S., & Kimball, E. K. (2019). Narrowed gaps and persistent challenges: Examining rural-nonrural disparities in postsecondary outcomes over time. Manuscript submitted for publication.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Appendices
Appendix 1
See Table 3.
Appendix 2
See Table 4.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Manly, C.A., Wells, R.S. & Kommers, S. Who are Rural Students? How Definitions of Rurality Affect Research on College Completion. Res High Educ 61, 764–779 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-019-09556-w
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-019-09556-w
Keywords
- Rural students
- Postsecondary education
- Quantitative analysis
- Secondary data analysis
- Degree completion