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Are opportunities to equalize elite high schools discriminatory? Evidence from a quasi-experimental design

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Abstract

While education equality is considered crucial for broader social equality, policies that aim to equalize educational resources are sometimes suspected of discriminating against high achievers. Such potential discrimination should be examined empirically to provide robust evidence for policymakers and the broader public. Using a quasi-experimental design and longitudinal dataset, this paper reports on research which has investigated potential discrimination arising from China’s high school quota admission policy, which is considered a successful initiative for distributing high achievers across middle schools in ways that equalize achievement, and hence improves overall quality. The results presented in this paper indicate there is basically no such discrimination after controlling for self-selection bias. The paper also reveals the broader value of evaluating potential discrimination as part of similar forms of education development.

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Notes

  1. NCEE scores are no longer available for public research, according to Chinese government regulation.

  2. The local authority conducted a simulated admission under traditional policy using the same administrative admission platform that conducted the HSQA. That is to say, the simulation data are what they used to do in school admission before HSQA policy was launched.

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Funding

Funding was provided by Young Scientists Fund [71403139] and Tsinghua Grants for Autonomous Research [2015Z21060].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Education, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Xinya Liu, Fei Qin, Xuan Hu & Yu Zhang

  2. School of Education, University of California, Irvine, USA

    Xuehan Zhou

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  1. Xinya Liu
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  2. Fei Qin
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  3. Xuehan Zhou
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  4. Xuan Hu
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Correspondence to Yu Zhang.

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Appendices

Appendix A: Results of PSM estimation including demographic variables

As shown in columns (3) and (6) of Table 8, the score gaps between disadvantaged and counterpart groups are not significant for either academic track except that for science and engineering track, disadvantaged group has significantly lower score on Chinese. As for psychological status in the first semester of high school, no significant difference appears before or after matching, except that in the arts and humanities track, students in disadvantaged group shows lower interest in study.

Table 8 Results of alternative PSM model
Full size table

Appendix B: Results of PSM using first mock exam scores

Results based on scores of the first mock exam are reported in Table 9. Columns (1) and (4) report the mean difference in subjects before matching, and columns (3) and (6) report results after matching. For the science and engineering track, the difference on all subjects is insignificant after controlling for self-selection bias, except that students in the disadvantaged group show significant lower math scores even after matching. In the arts and humanities track, only difference on English score is significant after matching.

Table 9 Results based on first mock exam score
Full size table

Appendix C: Analysis of intended beneficiaries

Table 10 reports results of intended beneficiaries; that is, relatively low-achieving students who obtain quota and attend elite high schools. Column (1) reports results of mean comparison for students from the science and engineering track. Column (2) reports OLS model results, and Column (3) shows PSM method results. Columns (4) to (6) report results for those from the arts and humanities track in the same order. According to columns (1) and (4), in both tracks, compared with students admitted to regular high schools regardless of HSQA policy, potential beneficiaries have significantly higher total scores, including math and language scores, in the mock examination. However, after controlling for self-selection bias, the gap becomes insignificant (see columns (3) and (6)).

Table 10 Results of potential beneficiaries
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Liu, X., Qin, F., Zhou, X. et al. Are opportunities to equalize elite high schools discriminatory? Evidence from a quasi-experimental design. Asia Pacific Educ. Rev. 21, 351–364 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-020-09628-y

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