Is the Standardization of Compulsory Education School Helpful to Improve Students’Performance? - An Empirical Analysis Based on Monitoring Data in Province A

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Mary Man

Standardization of compulsory education schools is promoted to advance education equity and overall quality, yet evaluations have emphasized inputs such as facilities, teaching staff, and funding while giving limited attention to effects on students’ academic performance. This imbalance obstructs understanding of real policy consequences and possible construction deviations. Using monitoring data from Province A, the study applies OLS and Regression Discontinuity Design to test correlations and causal impacts on student outcomes.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages18

Reading Time45 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Policy background and monitoring system in Province A

Study rationale and research approach (OLS and RDD)

Results and implications

Main findings on elementary vs. middle schools

Policy evaluation recommendations

Is the Standardization of Compulsory Education School Helpful to Improve Students’Performance? An Empirical Analysis Based on Monitoring Data in Province A Yanli Liu, 1 Jijun Yao, 1 Shike Zhou2 1. Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210024, China 2. Jiangsu Teaching and Research Office of Primary and Secondary Schools, Nanjing 210024, China Abstract. The standardization of compulsory education schools is an essential measure to promote education balance and improve education quality. However, when the implementation effect of this policy was evaluated, the improvement of input factors such as facilities and equipments, teaching faculty and funding were only focused on, but with less attention was paid to the impact of the standardization on students’academic performance. This kind of imbalance makes it difficult to fully grasp the real effects of standardization and its potential problems, which may lead to deviations in the direction of standardization construction. Therefore, this study used the monitoring data in province A that includes the standardized construction of compulsory education schools and academic quality of students to analyze the correlation between standardization construction and student performance through Ordinary Least Square (OLS). Further, a Regression Discontinuity Design (RDD) was used to analyze whether standardization construction is the cause of differences in student performance. The results showed that there was no significant correlation between standardization construction and elementary school students’performance, and negative correlation with middle school students’ performance; no substential causal relationship exists between standardization construction and student performance. This is majorly due to the emphasis on the conditions of school-running was set too much, and then the student performance was neglected. Therefore, future evaluation should be gradually changed while deepening the standardization construction with more attention paid to the connotative development and efforts made to the improvement of the education quality. Best Evid Chin Edu 2020; 5(1):591-608. Doi: [10.15354/bece.20.ar039](10.15354/bece.20.ar039). Keywords: Standardization Construction; Academic Performance of Students; Regression Discontinuity; Adequate Education About the Author: Yanli Liu, School of Education Science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China, E-mail: [1609604712@qq.com](1609604712@qq.com). Shike Zhou, School of Education Science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China, [E-mail: jyszsk@163.com](E-mail: jyszsk@163.com); Correspondence to: Jijun Yao, School of Education Science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China, E-mail: [yaojijun_njnu@163.com](yaojijun_njnu@163.com). Funding: The study was funded by the National Social Science Foundation of China (Project number AHA160006) and the Priority Academic Program for Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD) . Conflict of Interests: None. Introduction IN 2010, China issued the “Outline of the National Middle-and Long-term Educa tion Reform and Development Plan (2010-2020)”, which proposed that “advancing the standardization of compulsory education schools and balancing the allocation of resources such as teachers, equipment, books, school buildings, etc.” “Establish the national basic quality standards and monitoring system for compulsory education”(July 29, 2010) strive to continuously improve the standardization of compulsory education, promote education equity, improve education quality, and promote balanced development of compulsory education. In this context, local governments have successively issued relevant policy documents to vigorously promote the standardization of compulsory education schools. Take province A as an example, in 2015, the government of the province A released the “Standards for Provincial A Compulsory Education Schools (Trial)”(Provincial Government of A, 2015)

FAQs

What is the main research question of the study?

Whether standardization of compulsory education schools helps improve students’ academic performance, based on monitoring data from Province A.

How does the study analyze the relationship between standardization and student performance?

It uses Ordinary Least Square (OLS) to examine correlation and a Regression Discontinuity Design (RDD) to evaluate potential causal effects.

What do the results show about standardization’s impact?

There is no significant correlation for elementary school performance and a negative correlation for middle school performance; no substantial causal relationship is found.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Mary Man