The Effect of Education Groups on the Quality of Urban and Rural Compulsory Education - An Empirical Analysis Based on CEPS Data

Oct 15, 2026

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Using China Education Panel Survey (CEPS) data, the study applies a hierarchical linear model and quantile regression to assess how education groups influence the quality of compulsory education in urban and rural settings. Student cognitive ability is used as the evaluation indicator of educational quality. Results show an overall positive effect of education groups, yet clear urban-rural heterogeneity: improvements occur only for urban member schools, while rural member schools see no enhancement. Individual-level differences also emerge, with negative effects for rural students and those with medium-to-lower cognitive ability.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages6

Reading Time15 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Data Source

Research Findings

Statistical Descriptions of Member Schools of Education Groups

The Impact of School Grouping on Student Cognitive Ability

Full Sample Estimation

The Effect of Education Groups on the Quality of Urban and Rural Compulsory Education: An Empirical Analysis Based on CEPS Data Gang Cheng , Sihui Du, Yanan Xu, Luoping Li Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100091, China. | Abstract: We retrieved data from China Education Panel Survey (CEPS) and adopted the hierarchical linear model as well as the quantile regression method to examine the effect of education groups on the quality of urban and rural compulsory education. Student cognitive ability was cited as the evaluation index of education quality. According to the research findings, the overall effect of education groups on the quality of compulsory education is significantly positive, but there is urban-rural heterogeneity in this effect: the positive impact occurs only to urban member schools, while the education quality of rural member schools has not been improved by school grouping. In addition, there exists individual difference in this effect; school grouping significantly and negatively affects students from rural member schools and with medium and lower cognitive ability.
Best Evidence in Chinese Education 2022; 11(2):1517-1522.
Doi: 10.15354/bece.22.ab004 | | --- | | How to Cite: Cheng, G., Du, S., Xu, Y., & Li, L. (2022). The effect of education groups on the quality of urban and rural compulsory education: An empirical analysis based on CEPS data. Best Evidence in Chinese Education, 11(2):1517- 1522. | Keywords: Education Group, Compulsory Education, Education Quality, Urban-Rural Disparity Correspondence to: Gang Cheng, Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100091, China. E-mail: [cg@bnu.edu.cn](cg@bnu.edu.cn) Conflict of Interests: None. © 2022 Insights Publisher. All rights reserved. Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License ([http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/](http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed by the Insights Publisher. Introduction The education group at the compulsory education level is a form of school association composed of a certain number of primary and/or junior secondary schools that are contractually tied to achieve scale effect. It is designed to expand access to high-quality educational resources through the alliance of advantaged and disadvantaged schools. An education group constituted by prestigious urban schools and ordinary rural schools is established to universalize the frontier educational concepts and school management skills of the former and to promote the balanced development of urban and rural compulsory education. Based on the data from the China Education Panel Survey (CEPS) 2013-2015, this study uses the hierarchical linear model (HLM) and quantile regression method to evaluate the effect of education groups on the quality of urban and rural compulsory education quality as well as on the development of cognitive competencies of students with differential cognitive levels. The purpose of this paper is to identify the specific effects of school grouping on bridging the quality gap between urban and rural schools and to optimize the strategies for education group operation. Data Source This study sampled students who participated in the CEPS baseline survey of 2013- 2014 academic year and the follow-up survey of 2014-2015 academic year and drew the data of 6520 students from 88 schools. In the stage of baseline survey, they were in grade 7. Five of the sampled schools were members of education groups and contributed 316 students for this investigation, which accounted for 4.85% of the total sample of students. Further analysis showed that in the districts where the five schools are located, there are altogether 12 schools (715 st

FAQs

What data and methods are used to evaluate the effect of education groups?

The study uses China Education Panel Survey (CEPS) data from 2013–2015 and applies a hierarchical linear model and quantile regression to estimate the impact of education groups.

How is “education quality” measured in this research?

Student cognitive ability is used as the evaluation index for education quality.

Do education groups improve education quality in both urban and rural areas?

The overall effect is significantly positive, but it shows urban-rural heterogeneity: the positive impact is observed only in urban member schools, while rural member schools are not improved by school grouping.

Oct 15, 2026

Upload by Bulrr