Abstract:

A good educational ecology is an inherent part of a high-quality education system and a core indicator of building a strong educational nation. Based on the perspectives of systems theory, environmental theory, and functionalism, this paper draws on the “fourth-generation evaluation” theory and constructs an evaluation index system for the educational ecology index through multiple rounds of Delphi method, encompassing five dimensions: educational equity, standardized school operation, teacher and student burden, collaborative education, and student development. The educational ecology index is evaluated based on 10,651 household survey data from 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government in 2024. The evaluation results show that the average score of the national educational ecology index is 66.70. Through cluster analysis, the 31 provincial units can be divided into four categories, presenting a gradient pattern of the eastern region leading, the northeastern region following closely, the western region in the middle, and the central region catching up. The study finds that the main factors affecting the educational ecology include deviations in the educational performance view of local party committees and governments, the dependence of educational resource allocation on economic development, and weak collaboration in home-school-community education. It is suggested to reconstruct the educational performance view to guide the educational evaluation baton, establish a performance-oriented educational resource allocation mechanism, leverage the quality improvement of classroom teaching and the coordination effect of the “double reduction” policy, promote the legalization of home-school-community collaboration in education, establish and improve a negative list management mechanism, and drive the transformation of China’s basic education ecology from “exam-oriented” to “harmonious education”, fully supporting the construction of a strong educational nation.

Key words: educational ecology, index evaluation, fair and high-quality, educational performance perspective, door-to-door survey