学前教育机会与义务教育结果不平等——来自CEPS的经验证据

Preschool Education and Compulsory Education Result Inequality:Empirical Evidence from CEPS

学前教育作为儿童接受教育的起点,对其未来发展具有持续性、长期性影响。本研究基于中国教育追踪调查(CEPS)数据,运用倾向得分匹配法,分析学前教育机会对义务教育结果的影响,研究表明学前教育经历可以显著提高学生初中时的学习成绩,且越优质的学前教育对学生初中学习成绩的提高效应越大。由于低社会经济地位家庭的儿童接受学前教育的概率较低,且获得优质学前教育的机会更低,不同家庭背景儿童的发展差距在学前教育阶段就已出现,且会持续地对学生初中时的学习成绩造成深远影响。为缓解义务教育结果的不平等,应普遍扩大学前教育机会,提高学前教育质量,尤其要为家庭社会经济地位低的儿童提供高质量的学前教育。

As the starting point of children’s education,preschool education has a sustained and long-term impact on their future development.Based on the data of China Education Panel Survey(CEPS),this paper uses the propensity score matching method to analyze the impact of preschool education oppor原tunities on the inequality of compulsory education outcomes.The study found that preschool education can significantly improve students’learning performance in junior high school,and the higher the quality of preschool education,the greater the effect of improving students’learning performance in junior high school.Because children from low socioeconomic status families have lower probability of receiving preschool education and lower access to quality preschool education,the development gap between children from different family backgrounds begins to form at the stage of preschool education,and will continue to have a profound impact on students’performance in junior high school.In order to alleviate the inequality of the results of compulsory education,China should generally expand the opportunities of preschool education and improve the quality of preschool education,especially focusing on providing high-quality preschool education for children with low family socioeconomic status.