Merged or Unmerged School? School Preferences in the Context of School Mapping Restructure in Rural China
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Merged or Unmerged School? School Preferences in the Context of School Mapping Restructure in Rural China Dan Zhao • Bruno Parolin
De La Salle University 2013
Abstract Although the school mapping restructure (SMR) program in rural China mainly aims to improve the efficiency of education, this paper aims to show that the principle of educational equity should be given more attention, as evidence suggests that some children lose the opportunity to learn at a local village and rural families have different preferences regarding merged and unmerged schools. The study on which this paper is based aims to understand the family school choice preferences under SMR, through a combination of questionnaires, interviews, and document analysis. Participating in the study were 10,000 parents whose children were in merged and unmerged primary schools (a total of 986 schools), from 178 towns in 38 counties of six provinces in mid-western China. Data were collected mainly by questionnaires and analyzed by a binary logistic regression model as a tool to estimate school preference probabilities. The study finds that in the context of SMR, several related factors impact the willingness of families to choose certain schools for their children. Although many merged schools have better facilities and more qualified teachers, a number of families still prefer unmerged schools for their children due to shorter commuting distances and smaller school sizes, factors which offer improved school accessibility. This study also reveals that other related factors including parents’ education, economic condition, etc., are strong D. Zhao (&) College of Humanities, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, Shaanxi, China e-mail: [email protected] B. Parolin Faculty of the Built Environment, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia e-mail: [email protected]
influencers of family schooling preferences. Based on the results, the policy implications are that integration of both points of efficiency and equity of education when enacting SMR should be considered. Keywords School preferences Efficiency and equity of education School mapping restructure Merged and unmerged schools Educational policy Rural China
Introduction School mapping restructure (SMR) is a term used to describe the combining of schools or districts in an effort to generate administrative efficiencies and improved academic and social experiences for students in sparsely populated areas. It is also used to describe ‘‘school consolidation’’: the merging of two or more attendance areas to form a larger school attendance pool (Fitzwater 1953; Sell et al. 1996; Rural School and Community Trust 2000; McHenry-Sorber 2009). Others (e.g., Peshkin 1982) use the term ‘‘school reorganization’’ to describe the combination of two or more previously independent school districts in one new and larger school system. What these terms have in common is that they all refer to the merging together of small schools in relatively poor condition to
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