IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i6p3248-d517624.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Progress or Stagnation: Academic Assessments for Sustainable Education in Rural China

Author

Listed:
  • Haomin Zhang

    (Department of English, School of Foreign Languages, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China)

  • Xi Cheng

    (Department of English, School of Foreign Languages, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China)

  • Liuran Cui

    (Department of English, School of Foreign Languages, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China)

Abstract

Educational sustainability development (ESD) is central to our sustainable future. To promote inclusive and equitable quality education under the backdrop of sustainable developmental goals (SDGs), we intend to understand how rural students perform in academic studies of post-compulsory high-school education in China by assessing their academic performance based on measurements of four content subjects: Chinese, English, Physics and Biology. A total of 93 senior high school students (Grade 11 and Grade 12) participated in this study and they were enrolled in a rural school from the Guizhou province, China. Our results yielded no significant differences in overall test scores between Grade 11 and Grade 12. Repeated measures multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) across grade level showed stagnant progress in English reading and a decrease in science-related subjects, which indicates a plateau of academic achievements in rural secondary education. Furthermore, the interactional analysis identified a gender gap leaning toward male students because boys scored higher than girls in the three tested subjects. Applied implications were discussed with respect to sustainable education development in rural areas.

Suggested Citation

  • Haomin Zhang & Xi Cheng & Liuran Cui, 2021. "Progress or Stagnation: Academic Assessments for Sustainable Education in Rural China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-12, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:6:p:3248-:d:517624
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/6/3248/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/6/3248/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Metzler, Johannes & Woessmann, Ludger, 2012. "The impact of teacher subject knowledge on student achievement: Evidence from within-teacher within-student variation," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(2), pages 486-496.
    2. Ai Yue & Bin Tang & Yaojiang Shi & Jingjing Tang & Guanminjia Shang & Alexis Medina & Scott Rozelle, 2018. "Rural education across China’s 40 years of reform: past successes and future challenges," China Agricultural Economic Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 10(1), pages 93-118, February.
    3. Lijia Guo & Jiashun Huang & You Zhang, 2019. "Education Development in China: Education Return, Quality, and Equity," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(13), pages 1-20, July.
    4. Xiaolei Qian & Russell Smyth, 2008. "Measuring regional inequality of education in China: widening coast-inland gap or widening rural-urban gap?," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(2), pages 132-144.
    5. Lei, Wang & Li, Mengjie & Zhang, Siqi & Sun, Yonglei & Sylvia, Sean & Yang, Enyan & Ma, Guangrong & Zhang, Linxiu & Mo, Di & Rozelle, Scott, 2018. "Contract teachers and student achievement in rural China: evidence from class fixed effects," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 62(2), April.
    6. Chen,Dandan & Fu,Ning - HEAED & Pan,Yilin, 2019. "Progress and Challenges of Upper Secondary Education in China," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9042, The World Bank.
    7. Dandan Zhang & Xin Li & Jinjun Xue, 2015. "Education Inequality between Rural and Urban Areas of the People's Republic of China, Migrants’ Children Education, and Some Implications," Asian Development Review, MIT Press, vol. 32(1), pages 196-224, March.
    8. Pau Balart & Matthijs Oosterveen, 2019. "Females show more sustained performance during test-taking than males," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 10(1), pages 1-11, December.
    9. Filmer, Deon, 2000. "The structure of social disparities in education : gender and wealth," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2268, The World Bank.
    10. Brown, Philip H. & Park, Albert, 2002. "Education and poverty in rural China," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(6), pages 523-541, December.
    11. Gao, Qiufeng & Wang, Huan & Mo, Di & Shi, Yaojiang & Kenny, Kaleigh & Rozelle, Scott, 2018. "Can reading programs improve reading skills and academic performance in rural China?," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 111-125.
    12. Jane Golley & Sherry Tao Kong, 2013. "Inequality in Intergenerational Mobility of Education in China," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 21(2), pages 15-37, March.
    13. Dandan Chen & Ning Fu & Yilin Pan, 2019. "Progress and Challenges of Upper Secondary Education in China," World Bank Publications - Reports 31574, The World Bank Group.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Siyu Chen & Ran Wang & Tingting Wang & Wenxian Zhou, 2022. "The Impact of Student-Teacher Policy Perception on Employment Intentions in Rural Schools for Educational Sustainable Development Based on Push–Pull Theory: An Empirical Study from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-16, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Xiaodi Chen & Therese Hesketh, 2021. "Educational Aspirations and Expectations of Adolescents in Rural China: Determinants, Mental Health, and Academic Outcomes," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(21), pages 1-14, November.
    2. Tadesse, Endale & Gao, Chunhai & Sun, Jing & Khalid, Sabika & Lianyu, Cai, 2022. "The impact of socioeconomic status on self-determined learning motivation: A serial mediation analysis of the influence of Gaokao score on seniority in Chinese higher vocational college students," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    3. Safdar, Sarah & Ren, Minglun & Chudhery, Muhammad Adnan Zahid & Huo, Jiazhen & Rehman, Hakeem-Ur & Rafique, Raza, 2022. "Using cloud-based virtual learning environments to mitigate increasing disparity in urban-rural academic competence," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    4. Huo, Yujia & Golley, Jane, 2022. "Intergenerational education transmission in China: The gender dimension," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    5. Yongwei Chen & Ying Zhang, 2020. "Effects of free compulsory education on rural well‐being in China," Asian-Pacific Economic Literature, The Crawford School, The Australian National University, vol. 34(2), pages 78-92, November.
    6. Zhao, Qiran & Wang, Xiaobing & Rozelle, Scott, 2019. "Better cognition, better school performance? Evidence from primary schools in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 199-217.
    7. Li, Bo & Lu, Shilin, 2023. "Labor education, cash transfers and student development: Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    8. Yi, Hongmei & Zhang, Linxiu & Yao, Yezhou & Wang, Aiqin & Ma, Yue & Shi, Yaojiang & Chu, James & Loyalka, Prashant & Rozelle, Scott, 2015. "Exploring the dropout rates and causes of dropout in upper-secondary technical and vocational education and training (TVET) schools in China," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 115-123.
    9. Tani, Massimiliano & Xu, Lei & Zhu, Yu, 2021. "The impact of an un(der)funded inclusive education policy: Evidence from the 2013 China education panel survey," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 190(C), pages 768-784.
    10. Xiong, Feng & Zang, Leizhen & Zhou, Ling & Liu, Fei, 2020. "The effect of number of siblings and birth order on educational attainment: Empirical Evidence from Chinese General Social Survey," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    11. Zhang, Huafeng, 2017. "Opportunity or new poverty trap: Rural-urban education disparity and internal migration in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 112-124.
    12. Huifu Nong & Qing Zhang & Hongjia Zhu & Rong Zhu, 2022. "Targeted Poverty Alleviation and Children’s Academic Performance in China," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 68(4), pages 951-969, December.
    13. Xiong, Xianfang & Deng, Lanfang & Li, Hongyi, 2020. "Is winning at the start important: Early childhood family cognitive stimulation and child development," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    14. Wang, Chuhong & Akgüҫ, Mehtap & Liu, Xingfei & Tani, Massimiliano, 2020. "Expropriation with hukou change and labour market outcomes in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    15. Quang Trieu & Rukmalie Jayakody, 2019. "Ethnic Minority Educational Success: Understanding Accomplishments in Challenging Settings," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 145(2), pages 663-701, September.
    16. Valerio Mendoza, Octasiano M., 2018. "Heterogeneous determinants of educational achievement and inequality across urban China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 129-148.
    17. Zhenchao Zhang & Weixin Luan & Chuang Tian & Min Su & Zeyang Li, 2021. "Spatial Distribution Equilibrium and Relationship between Construction Land Expansion and Basic Education Schools in Shanghai Based on POI Data," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-17, October.
    18. Martin Schlotter & Guido Schwerdt & Ludger Woessmann, 2011. "Econometric methods for causal evaluation of education policies and practices: a non-technical guide," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(2), pages 109-137.
    19. Asadullah, M. Niaz & Xiao, Saizi, 2020. "The changing pattern of wage returns to education in post-reform China," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 137-148.
    20. Zhang, Bingqi & Nozawa, Wataru & Managi, Shunsuke, 2021. "Spatial inequality of inclusive wealth in China and Japan," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 164-179.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:6:p:3248-:d:517624. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.