Who Is More Likely to Participate in Private Tutoring and Does It Work - Evidence from PISA (2015)

Oct 15, 2026

Private tutoring has become increasingly prevalent in China, shaping after-school learning and expanding family education spending. This paper analyzes the determinants of Chinese students’ participation in private tutoring and evaluates its effectiveness using PISA 2015 data for Mainland China, with attention to science-related tutoring. Multilevel logistic modeling and hierarchical linear modeling with coarsened exact matching identify key individual and school-level influences.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages27

Reading Time1 h 8 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Background and prevalence of private tutoring

Family education expenditure trends

Mixed evidence on effectiveness

Need for heterogeneity and educational equity analysis

Who Is More Likely to Participate in Private Tutoring and Does It Work?: Evidence from PISA (2015) Xiangyi Liao and Xiaoting Huang Peking University © East China Normal University & East China Normal University Press, Shanghai, China Abstract Purpose—In recent years, private tutoring has become increasingly prevalent in China and has become both a dominant way for students to learn after school and a major component of family educational expenditure. This paper aims to analyze the factors that affect Chinese students’ participation in private tutoring and the effectiveness of private tutoring. Design/Approach/Methods—We use data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2015 of Mainland China area and focus specifically on science-related private tutoring. Multilevel logistic model and hierarchical linear model based on coarsened exact matching (CEM) are used to conduct the investigations. Findings—Empirical results show that individual level factors including student’s interest in science, educational expectations, and school-level factors such as school autonomy, sciencerelated learning resources and school size pose a significant influence on the likelihood of participation in private tutoring. Moreover, science-related private tutoring has not significantly improved the overall scientific literacy scores of students. In addition, private tutoring has widened the performance gap among students from different socioeconomic backgrounds, with students from socioeconomically advantaged family experiencing more significant gains from tutoring. Originality/Value—These findings suggest that providing free high-quality tutoring to students from disadvantaged families might be an effective way of promoting educational equity. Keywords Private tutoring; PISA scientific literacy; educational equity; CEM; HLM Corresponding Author: Xiaoting Huang [xthuang@pku.edu.cn](xthuang@pku.edu.cn) 70 Xiangyi Liao and Xiaoting Huang I. Introduction In recent years, private tutoring has become increasingly pervasive in China, attracting extensive attention from researchers and the general public alike. An already large body of data reveals that the participation rate in private tutoring among Chinese students is at a relatively high level and appears to be continuing its upward trend. The China Urban Residents Education and Employment Survey released in 2004 shows that a majority of urban students have participated in private tutoring, and that the proportion of students participating in such tutoring during middle school was as high as 65.6%(Xue & Ding, 2009) . A survey conducted in Gansu, Hunan, and Jiangsu provinces examined the participation in private tutoring of third-year middle school students and found that the average participation rate of students from the three provincial capitals was as high as 82.8%, while only around one-third of the students located in provinces’ various county seats did not take such tutoring (Tsang, Ding, & Shen, 2010) . Another survey of high school students in Jinan also showed that students in later grades had higher tutoring participation rates (Zhang, 2013) . At the sametime, an international comparison using PISA 2012 data found that participation rate in private tutoring of 15-year-old students in Shanghai significantly exceeded the average of that in OECD countries and most East Asian countries (Zhou & Zou, 2016) . In addition, the family education expenditure of private tutoring in China has been constantly increasing. In 2007, the National Family Education Expenditure Survey showed that the average annual tutoring expenditure for students during compulsory education was 1,781 .4 CNY, of which the average annual cost for core subjects tutoring was 823.9 CNY (Qian, Chi, & Shi, 2015) . The 2012 China Family Panel Studies shows that the average tutoring expenditure among participants reached 2,227.24 CNY per person per year (Xue, 2015) . Based on this, we ca

FAQs

What is the main purpose of the paper?

To analyze factors affecting Chinese students’ participation in private tutoring and to assess whether private tutoring is effective, especially for science-related outcomes.

What data and methods does the study use?

The study uses PISA 2015 Mainland China data and applies multilevel logistic models and hierarchical linear models based on coarsened exact matching (CEM) for its investigations.

Do science-related private tutoring sessions improve scientific literacy scores?

Science-related private tutoring does not significantly improve students’ overall scientific literacy scores, according to the empirical findings.

Oct 15, 2026

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