Previous explanations of teen pregnancy have often included uncritical use of the notion of adolescents "at risk." More recently, however, attention has shifted to structurally determined contextual factors to explain teen pregnancy. Such factors include economic and educational opportunities and costs, as well as chances for valued participation in socially and culturally stable communities. This interest in contextual factors parallels a development in the literature on high school dropouts. A West Virginia data set previously employed to study school district variability in high school completion rates was analyzed to determine if teen pregnancy rates followed a pattern seen with dropout rates. As expected, births per thousand females aged 15-19 was negatively related to average wages and positively related to school district size. Unexpectedly, the teenage birth rate was negatively related to the percentage of students receiving free and reduced-cost lunches, suggesting that this measure of disadvantagement is a proxy for traditional community norms and practices. Teenage birth rate was not related to average unemployment or college enrollment rates. Results suggest that commonplace explanations of teen pregnancy in Appalachia are simply wrong. Rather than being a manifestation of welfare dependency and a debilitating culture of poverty, teen pregnancy reflects an absence of opportunity and the decline of traditional community patterns. Further, as traditionally small schools are replaced by larger schools where a sense of valued membership and participation are harder to find, teen pregnancy becomes still more likely. Contains 7 tables and 46 references. (Author/SV)