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Evidenced-based Educational Reform 

Supported by Education Quality Monitor-

ing: China’s Exploration and Experience 
 

Jijun Yao 

School of Educational Science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210024, Jiangsu, 

China 

“Every child should have the opportunity to receive a quality 

education.” 

–Bill Frist 

N China’s educational community, there is a consensus that any deci-

sion-making or advance in reform must be based on scientific evidence. 

It has been realized that the traditional instruction modalities that draw 

on educators’ personal experience have become ineffective in accomplishing 

better education in the new era. In this context, China’s educational adminis-

trators have been committed to constructing an evidence-based system to en-

able reform in education. 

In the Construction and Application of Regional Education Quality 

Monitoring Databases: A Case Study of Suzhou’s Education Quality Moni-

toring in this issue of the journal (Shen & Luo, 2022), Suzhou’s education 

quality monitoring (EQM) research team presents their city’s experiences in 

developing EQM databases. Suzhou, a city with a high level of socio-

economic development, has made successful experiments in evidence-based 

educational reform. It has created a citywide EQM system, which can pro-

vide comprehensive evaluation of student academic performance as well as 

useful information about school operation, teachers’ instruction behavior, 

students’ learning behavior, and home education, etc. As a result, ample data 

are available for systematic analyses of teaching and learning processes and  
 

 

 

 

 

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BECE, Vol.12, No.2, 2022 1610 

outcomes. Technically, Suzhou’s EQM system has incorporated big data 

analytics and AI assessment technologies; it also enables longitudinal re-

search on student long-term development. Such educational database design 

is original and cutting-edge in China. 

The significance of Suzhou’s exploration in EQM database construc-

tion is remarkable. First, there are big gaps in social development level 

among regions in China. Attitudes towards evidence-based educational re-

form vary in different areas. It necessitates pioneers and successful stories 

from relatively developed regions which can serve as role models for less 

developed ones by sharing valuable experience. Suzhou proves to be a good 

example in this regard. Second, Suzhou’s practice provides a useful reference 

for global evidence-based educational reform. Its EQM database architecture 

is top-notch in operational procedure and technological application, and has 

many advantages in supporting educational decision-making and practice. 

Although each country has its own national circumstances and educational 

conditions, we believe that Suzhou’s technical innovation in EQM can go 

beyond regional and national boundaries and has the potential of universal 

application. Third, Suzhou’s evidence-based educational reform focuses on 

issues of Chinese features. Chinese society tends to overemphasize student 

academic achievements. This has caused a series of problems, but also offers 

a chance to achieve the breakthrough in educational reform. For its regional 

EQM, Suzhou has established a complete feature database system focused on 

student academic performance, which is a reasonable and effective strategy 

under China’s circumstances. This pathway can not only assist in responding 

to the most pronounced and critical issues, but also ignite a larger scale of 

educational reform and make it a successful change. 

As the evidence-based educational reform is still in its infancy in Chi-

na, the exploration in this area, including Suzhou’s, is undergoing progres-

sive improvement. Despite the remarkable achievements that have been 

made in Suzhou’s EQM, there is still room for improvement in obtaining 

more reliable and robust evidence. We believe that over time, with the con-

tinuous efforts of researchers and practitioners, China’s, including Suzhou’s, 

educational reform based on empirical evidence will surely generate more sa-

lient results and provide valuable insights to its counterparts worldwide. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References 

Shen, J. & Luo, Q. (2022). The construction and application of regional education quality 

monitoring databases: A case study of Suzhou’s education quality monitoring. Best 

Evidence in Chinese Education, 2022; 12(2):1613-1628. DOI: 

https://doi.org/10.15354/bece.22.re031 

https://doi.org/10.15354/bece.22.re031


 

BECE, Vol.12, No.2, 2022 1611 

 

Correspondence to:  

Jijun Yao, Ph.D. 

School of Educational Science 

Nanjing Normal University 
Nanjing 210024 

Jiangsu 

China 
E-mail: E-mail: yaojijun_njnu@163.com 

Conflict of Interests: None. 

Doi: 10.15354/bece.22.co020 

 

mailto:yaojijun_njnu@163.com

