高考分数和高中排名在招生中的甄别价值——基于招生倾斜政策的视角

College Entrance Exam Scores and High School Class Rank——Examining two meritocratic criteria in the context of special admissions policies

招生倾斜政策使用降分的方式录取边远省份、农村贫困地区学生,被指责为对择优录取原则的背离。基于X大学的学生学业记录和调研数据,分析验证了高中排名是更有效且更公平的优秀标准,为招生倾斜政策注重高中成绩的做法提供了实证支持。第一,重点大学在实施倾斜政策时似乎无意中使用了高考分数和高中排名两个"择优录取"的标准,高考分数有所放松的学生高中排名优秀。第二,高中排名对于大学表现有着更好的预测力,预测力更大而且随年级上升而增强。高考分数相当程度反映了学生的基础教育地区性差异和家庭社会经济背景差异,而高中排名的内涵更独立于资源优势因此更为公平。第三,在继续实施招生倾斜政策时,为保证招生目标的实现,提高高考分数并不可行,而且仅关注提高高考分数对于促进大学学业表现而言也相对低效。适当放松高考分数而注重高中排名不仅是倾斜政策实施的现实选择也是更好的选择。

Chinese government has implemented special admission policies in recent years to promote the access to elite universities for disadvantaged students by allowing a small College entrance exam score break, yet the opponents of the policies accuse it as a departure from meritocracy. Using X University as a case, based on its administrative records and survey data, we attest that high school class rank is another good and fairer merit criterion, and therefore lend empirical support to the current practice of the policies. First, elite universities seem to have utilized both exam scores and high school class rank as merit criteria in implementing special admission policies, students admitted with an exam score break rank high in high school. Second, high school class rank is a better predictor of academic performance in college, stronger predictive power that increases over time. High school class rank is independent from the differences in secondary education and family socioeconomic backgrounds, yet exam scores partly reflect these differences. And third, raising exam score requirement is not feasible in continuing policy implementation, and the fixation on exam scores is also less effective in assuring college academic performance of admitted students. That stressing high school class rank at the expense of a small score break is not only a practical choice but also a better choice in policy implementation.