Targeted Poverty Alleviation through Education: Long-term Effect of China’s “One Village One Preschool” Project on Rural Children’s Academic Achievements

doi:10.16382/j.cnki.1000-5560.2020.02.011

Abstract

Abstract:

In 2009, the China Development Research Foundation launched the government-supported public intervention, One Village One Preschool (OVOP) project, which provided access to early childhood education (ECE) to disadvantaged rural and minority children in central and western rural China. From 2009 to 2018, OVOP established about 2300 centers in ten provinces, enrolling over 170000 rural young children, free of charge for all. We analyzed longitudinal data collected from a sample of 1962 children in one county (comparing OVOP attendees to children with no ECE, private ECE, and public ECE), using an inverse probability weighting approach to reducing selection bias in evaluating the effects of OVOP on children’s academic achievement during the first 5 years of elementary school. We found that children who attended OVOP centers attained higher scores in elementary grades than children who received no ECE or attended private township ECE. However, OVOP children scored lower than children who went to well-resourced public township ECE. In addition, the OVOP children had similar growth rates to public-ECE children; both groups improved more quickly than children in the non-ECE or private-ECE group. We conclude with a discussion of the value of providing low-cost ECE to rural children in China.

Key words: targeted poverty alleviation through education, poverty rural areas, “One Village One Preschool” project, academic achievement

Chen Zhao, Si Chen, Yan Cao, Snow Catherine, Mai Lu. Targeted Poverty Alleviation through Education: Long-term Effect of China’s “One Village One Preschool” Project on Rural Children’s Academic Achievements[J]. Journal of East China Normal University(Educational Sciences), 2020, 38(2): 114-125.

Figures/Tables 5

References 29

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	全体样本人数=1962	“一村一园” 人数=647	县城公立幼儿园人数=451	其他类型幼儿园人数=667	无学前教育经历人数=197
女孩比例	47%	49.1%	48.8%	43.2%	49.2%
独生子女	55.1%	55.6%	56.1%	54.6%	53.3%
留守儿童	31.7%	41.5%	22.2%	32.2%	39.4%
特殊需要儿童	6.1%	8.9%	3.1%	5.2%	7.1%
特困家庭	10.2%	16.2%	3.7%	7.2%	15.7%
父母为监护人	52.4%	43.6%	63.7%	52.5%	45.2%
母亲农业户口	75.6%	99.3%	29.1%	84.1%	95.9%
父亲农业户口	80.2%	98.4%	30.4%	82.3%	98.3%
母亲年龄	27.41（4.39）	27.11（4.45）	27.55（4.40）	27.61（4.29）	27.38（4.48）
平均分：一年级	70.79（9.26）	70.59（8.98）	73.72（9.16）	70.14（9.04）	66.92（9.56）
平均分：三年级	78.14（6.06）	78.15（5.76）	80.16（5.58）	77.70（6.14）	74.97（6.21）
平均分：五年级	77.55（6.49）	78.85（6.20）	80.28（5.72）	75.91（6.24）	72.58（5.51）

	一年级		三年级		五年级
	系数	标准误差	系数	标准误差	系数	标准误差
OLS 模型结果
“一村一园”	0.41^***	0.08	0.52^***	0.08	0.96^***	0.08
其他幼儿园	0.36^***	0.08	0.44^***	0.08	0.51^***	0.08
县城公立幼儿园	0.74^***	0.08	0.85^***	0.08	1.18^***	0.08
R²	0.05	0.06	0.14
IPW 模型结果
“一村一园”	0.41^***	0.08	0.53^***	0.09	0.98^***	0.07
其他幼儿园	0.36^***	0.08	0.45^***	0.09	0.54^***	0.07
县城公立幼儿园	0.75^***	0.09	0.86^***	0.09	1.20^***	0.07

	学业成绩
		系数	标准误差
固定效应
截距	γ₀₀	?0.35^***	0.05
年	γ₁₀	?0.08^***	0.02
“一村一园”	γ₀₁	0.25^***	0.07
其他幼儿园	γ₀₂	0.34^**	0.08
县城公立幼儿园	γ₀₃	0.63^***	0.10
一村一园　年	γ₁₁	0.13^***	0.02
其他幼儿园　年	γ₁₂	0.04^*	0.02
县城公立幼儿园　年	γ₁₃	0.10^***	0.02
随机效应
第二层初始值	σ₀²	0.06	0.24
第二层变化速率	σ₁²	3.33	1.83
拟合优度
?2LL	16312.53
AIC	16348.53
BIC	16468.78

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