EPAA Vol. 10 No. 15 Wang & Zhou: Basic Education Reform in China 1 of 4 Education Policy Analysis Archives Volume 10 Number 15 March 8, 2002 ISSN 1068-2341 A peer-reviewed scholarly journal Editor: Gene V Glass College of Education Arizona State University Copyright 2002, the EDUCATION POLICY ANALYSIS ARCHIVES . Permission is hereby granted to copy any article if EPAA is credited and copies are not sold. Articles appearing in EPAA are abstracted in the Current Index to Journals in Education by the ERIC Clearinghouse on Assessment and Evaluation and are permanently archived in Resources in Education. Basic Education Reform in China: Untangling the Story of Success Chengzhi Wang Princeton University Quanhua Zhou University of Arizona Citation: Wang, C. & Zhou, Q. (2002, March 8). Basic education reform in China: Untangling the story of success. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 10(15). Retrieved [date] from http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v10n15.html/. Abstract China's recent basic education reform followed and, in a certain way, imitated its economic reform. The economic reform merged the experimental dual (planned and market) price systems into a free market economy and yielded phenomenal success. Basic education reform, however, has not succeeded in transforming the introductory dual-track (key school and regular school) systems into a universal one. This article briefly examines the general process and outcomes of basic education reform. It discusses the following questions: Is basic education reform also a story of success? What significant lessons can the Chinese reform experience offer to other comparable developing countries? 2 of 4 Introduction The reform of basic education (which includes primary and junior secondary schooling) in China from the middle 1980s has not completely severed it from Maoist popular education. The post-Mao reform policy makers have never discarded the tradition of localization and community participation. In contrast to Maoist egalitarian schooling, however, school or pupil tracking (typically represented by key vs. regular schools) has been promoted in pursuit of economic efficiency in post-Mao educational changes and reforms. This article presents a brief examination of the general process and outcomes of basic education reform. We first summarize economic reform and basic education reform, in particular their significant similarities and differences in terms of process and results. We then explain the success of basic education reform using three perspectives, namely, 1) the three matters/solutions, 2) contingency theory, and 3) the 3-C framework. Next, we analyze the price that China has paid for the success of education reform. Finally, we conclude that what the Chinese experience can offer to other developing countries is just what other countries have offered to China: erosion of traditions and westernization of schooling. Economic Reform Chinese economic reform is a unique process. From a price perspective, in the early 1980s, the government acquiesced to the coexistence of central planned production and market pricing. In 1985, transactions based on market prices outside the state plan won legal sanction. Gradual decontrol of consumer goods prices steadily brought most consumer goods into a market price system (Naughton, 1995; Riskin, 1987). In 1991, the Central Committee of the Communist Party called for elimination of the dual-track system and boldly recommended a gradual shift to a market system. One year later, the National People's Congress declared that the objective of reform was a "socialist market economy with all stress on the free market" (Naughton, 1995, p. 288). The government then unambiguously embraced the free market economy and began systematically dismantling the outdated command plan economic structure. However, the economic reform was not strategically planned. In other words, it was initiated without a strategy. Yet, "a limited number of crucial government decisions and commitments were required in order to allow reform to develop. In certain periods, policymakers acted as if they had a commitment to a specific reform strategy" (Naughton, 1995, p. 7). In the process of the reform as a whole, "what is most striking is the succession of incremental, steadily accumulating measures of economic reform that have gradually transformed the economy in a fundamental way" (Naughton, 1995, p. 20). No doubt, the two decades of economic reform resulted in increasing income inequality as documented in the rich research literature studying the reform. Yet, the growth of an income gap is not peculiar to China. It is a worldwide phenomenon observed in both developed countries such as the U.S. and all transitional countries in recent decades. Furthermore, in the case of China, the extent of income inequality and its underlying 3 of 4 Copyright 2002 by the Education Policy Analysis Archives The World Wide Web address for the Education Policy Analysis Archives is epaa.asu.edu General questions about appropriateness of topics or particular articles may be addressed to the Editor, Gene V Glass, glass@asu.edu or reach him at College of Education, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-2411. The Commentary Editor is Casey D. Cobb: casey.cobb@unh.edu . EPAA Editorial Board Michael W. Apple University of Wisconsin Greg Camilli Rutgers University John Covaleskie Northern Michigan University Alan Davis University of Colorado, Denver Sherman Dorn University of South Florida Mark E. Fetler California Commission on Teacher Credentialing Richard Garlikov hmwkhelp@scott.net Thomas F. Green Syracuse University Alison I. Griffith York University Arlen Gullickson Western Michigan University Ernest R. House University of Colorado Aimee Howley Ohio University Craig B. Howley Appalachia Educational Laboratory William Hunter University of Calgary Daniel Kallós Umeå University Benjamin Levin University of Manitoba Thomas Mauhs-Pugh Green Mountain College Dewayne Matthews Education Commission of the States William McInerney Purdue University Mary McKeown-Moak MGT of America (Austin, TX) Les McLean University of Toronto Susan Bobbitt Nolen University of Washington Anne L. Pemberton apembert@pen.k12.va.us Hugh G. Petrie SUNY Buffalo Richard C. Richardson New York University Anthony G. Rud Jr. Purdue University Dennis Sayers California State University—Stanislaus Jay D. Scribner University of Texas at Austin Michael Scriven scriven@aol.com Robert E. Stake University of Illinois—UC Robert Stonehill U.S. Department of Education David D. Williams Brigham Young University 4 of 4 EPAA Spanish Language Editorial Board Associate Editor for Spanish Language Roberto Rodríguez Gómez Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México roberto@servidor.unam.mx Adrián Acosta (México) Universidad de Guadalajara adrianacosta@compuserve.com J. Félix Angulo Rasco (Spain) Universidad de Cádiz felix.angulo@uca.es Teresa Bracho (México) Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económica-CIDE bracho dis1.cide.mx Alejandro Canales (México) Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México canalesa@servidor.unam.mx Ursula Casanova (U.S.A.) Arizona State University casanova@asu.edu José Contreras Domingo Universitat de Barcelona Jose.Contreras@doe.d5.ub.es Erwin Epstein (U.S.A.) Loyola University of Chicago Eepstein@luc.edu Josué González (U.S.A.) Arizona State University josue@asu.edu Rollin Kent (México) Departamento de Investigación Educativa-DIE/CINVESTAV rkent@gemtel.com.mx kentr@data.net.mx María Beatriz Luce (Brazil) Universidad Federal de Rio Grande do Sul-UFRGS lucemb@orion.ufrgs.br Javier Mendoza Rojas (México) Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México javiermr@servidor.unam.mx Marcela Mollis (Argentina) Universidad de Buenos Aires mmollis@filo.uba.ar Humberto Muñoz García (México) Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México humberto@servidor.unam.mx Angel Ignacio Pérez Gómez (Spain) Universidad de Málaga aiperez@uma.es Daniel Schugurensky (Argentina-Canadá) OISE/UT, Canada dschugurensky@oise.utoronto.ca Simon Schwartzman (Brazil) Fundação Instituto Brasileiro e Geografia e Estatística simon@openlink.com.br Jurjo Torres Santomé (Spain) Universidad de A Coruña jurjo@udc.es Carlos Alberto Torres (U.S.A.) University of California, Los Angeles torres@gseisucla.edu