Reading achievement in China’s rural primary schools: a study of three provinces

ABSTRACT

This paper aims to explore and quantify the reading achievement of primary school students from three different regions in rural China. Using survey data on 23,143 students from Shaanxi, Guizhou, and Jiangxi provinces, we find although gaps in student reading achievement exist among the three sample provinces, all sample students exhibit low levels of reading achievement. Compared to students from other countries that participated in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study reading tests, our sample students from rural China ranked last. Our regression analysis documented strong correlations between reading achievement and maths performance exist among the sample students in rural China. Additionally, we find male students, students with rural household registration, boarding students, and students from relatively poor families are more susceptible to having worse reading outcomes. Overall, our findings indicate the government should develop more effective policies to support reading skill development in China, especially in rural areas.

KEYWORDS:

• Reading achievement
• academic performance
• rural China
• primary school

Acknowledgments

We thank Cody Abbey ([email protected]) for editing the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the 111 Project under Grant number B16031; Humanities and Social Science project of Ministry of education under Grant number 19YJCZH151 .

Notes on contributors

Qiufeng Gao

Qiufeng Gao is a researcher in the Center for Experimental Economics in Education from Shaanxi Normal University in China. She received her PhD in Economics from Shaanxi Normal University in 2018. Her main research is focused on rural education and health policy reform in China.

Huan Wang

Huan Wang is a researcher in the Center for Experimental Economics in Education from Shaanxi Normal University in China. She received her PhD in Economics from Northwest University in China in 2016. Her research interests are mainly focused on rural education in rural China.

Fang Chang

Fang Chang is an assistant professor in the Center for Experimental Economics in Education from Shaanxi Normal University in China. Her research interest includes the intersection between public policy and educational inequality in China.

Hongmei Yi

Hongmei Yi is an associate professor in the China Center for Agricultural Policy in School of Advanced Agricultural Sciences at Peking University. She received her PhD in Agricultural Economics from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in China in 2009. Her research interests are mainly focused on human capital investment, social protection network, and health policy reform in rural China.

Yaojiang Shi

Yaojiang Shi is a professor of economics at Shaanxi Normal University in China. He is the founding director of the Center for Experimental Economics in Education. His work is increasingly focused on China’s education reforms and using empirical research to identify important leverage points for education policy that addresses the needs of the rural poor.