| Previous research has consistently shown how population quality drives economic growth,which is especially relevant to sustaining China's economic development into the future.Education is one main way to increase human capital and population quality.The severe education gap between urban and rural areas in China threatens the nation's continued economic and social progress.Out of all stages of education,numerous studies stress how investing in early childhood learning generates the highest return in long-term academic achievement.Thus,improving early educational outcomes in rural China will impact the reserve of rural human capital and the nation's economic growth.The development of adequate reading skills at an early age has been proven to have an enormous influence on the academic performance of students throughout the course of their education career.It is commonly believed that reading challenges should be addressed early to decrease the likelihood that developmental delays will impact students over the long-term.Recognizing the importance of reading,the Chinese government has launched a series of initiatives to promote reading development,such as "national reading activities." However,education policies that allocate a majority of resources toward urban schools result in a gap in academic performance between urban and rural students in China.Will the limited education input harm the adequate reading development in rural China?Few if any studies have characterized the state of student reading skills in rural China or empirically evaluated what reading interventions improve them.Therefore,the main goal of this paper is to understand students' reading skills and reading environment in rural China,evaluate supply-side solutions to promote reading skills development,and assess the effect of rural labor migration on student academic performance.To achieve these goals,this paper has four specific objectives:(1)to evaluate the reading ability development of students in rural areas of China;(2)to understand school and family reading environments and how they affect the reading ability development;(3)to design and evaluate different types of supply-side reading interventions on rural student reading skills and academic performance;(4)to evaluate the impact of rural labor force migration on children's reading development and academic performance.The main conclusions of this study are as follows.(1)In gestudents in rural China exhibited low levels of reading skills.Comparing these results neral,primary school to international data from the Progress in International Reading Study(PIRLS)showed that the reading test scores of our sample were the lowest of any region or country.(2)Students in rural areas still lack sufficient reading resources.Home reading environments and school classrooms and libraries are often inaccessible and inadequate in book supply.(3)Providing appropriate book resources combined with reading guidance can improve not only rural students'reading skills,but also academic performance.(4)Our data did not find a significant correlation between out-migrating and students'reading and academic performance in rural China.The positive effects of out-migrating parents,such as an increased family income,may offset its negative effects,such as the decrease of learning companionship and guidance.Based on the above conclusions,our paper has the following policy recommendations:(1)Education policy makers should consider and design evidence-based interventions to improve the low student reading skills in rural China.(2)Because public understanding and support around reading is lacking,publicity and education must target schools,parents,and students about the importance of reading and creating positive reading environments.(3)Government officials should invest more in increasing and incorporating grassroots input when developing reading programs and policies,and they should include reading ability as a metric when assessing the quality of education in schools. |
PDF Full Text Request