课外补习的有效性——基于中国教育追踪调查的估计

The Effectiveness of Private Tutoring:An Estimation Based on China Education Panel Survey

课外补习能否有效提升学业成绩一直是研究和实践关注的焦点。本文基于中国教育追踪调查(CEPS)数据,使用双重差分倾向得分匹配法(PSM-DID)有效控制内生性问题,对课外补习的有效性问题进行了实证研究。研究发现:在总样本上,课外补习并不是提升学业成绩的"快车道",甚至显著地降低了初中生的标准总成绩;与此同时,课外补习具有明显的"安慰剂效应",显著地减少了初中生感到沮丧、悲伤、生活没有意思和不快乐等负性情绪的频率。进一步的分样本研究发现,"补习无效"主要存在于男性、农村和父母职业为非精英的弱势亚群体中,而"安慰剂效应"也常常在这些群体中同时出现。上述发现说明,对于优质教育机会不足的弱势群体学生来说,参与课外补习的根本动力可能并不在于学业成绩上的回报,更多的是一种心理和情感上的安慰。

The question of whether private tutoring can effectively improve academic performance has come into focus in recent years. Based on China Education Panel Survey (CEPS) data, this study finds that private tutoring does not have a positive impact on academic achievement of middle school students in China. On the contrary, it has a negative impact to some extent. At the same time, we find that private tutoring significantly reduces the frequency of students negative emotions such as feeling blue, feeling unhappy, not enjoying life and feeling sad. The above findings suggest that private tutoring has only emotional value rather than educational value for most participants, and we believe that this is mainly due to the collective anxiety caused by educational competition. Further analysis finds that emotional value mainly exists for disadvantaged groups of students, namely, those who are male and those who come from rural areas or non-elite families. At the same time, private tutoring has no academic effect and even has a negative effect on these students. Thus, private tutoring appears to benefit advantaged group and harm disadvantaged groups. From this perspective, private tutoring further enlarges the inequality in academic achievement among different groups and should therefore receive more attention from the Chinese government and families.