This paper discusses the difficulties that rural students on a Maine island encounter as they make the transition from a small local elementary school to a large distant high school. The elementary school is characterized by small class sizes, close nurturing teacher-student relationships, and the involvement of parents and families. When students from this school enter the island's consolidated high school, they experience much larger classes, less supportive teachers, impersonal teaching styles, less parental support, lack of guidance from overworked school counselors, and derogatory comments about their origins in an isolated working-class village. The long distances between home and school and the lack of transportation interfere with access to additional academic help, participation in extracurricular activities, and parental involvement. Numerous interview excerpts illustrate student reactions to their high school experiences. Responses to the National Center for Student Aspirations (NCSA) survey indicate that, compared to ninth-graders who had left the small elementary school the previous year, current eighth-grade students in the school showed more commitment to achievement, greater enjoyment of their daily lives, and higher levels of inspiration and ambition. In terms of NCSA criteria, the elementary school does a better job than the high school in providing a setting in which students can develop high aspirations. (SV)