Progress or Stagnation: Academic Assessments for Sustainable Education in Rural China

• Main Authors: Haomin Zhang, Xi Cheng, Liuran Cui
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-03-01
• Series: Sustainability
• Subjects: education for sustainability; rural high school education; academic achievement; assessment; China
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/6/3248

Educational sustainability development (ESD) is central to our sustainable future. To promote inclusive and equitable quality education under the backdrop of sustainable developmental goals (SDGs), we intend to understand how rural students perform in academic studies of post-compulsory high-school education in China by assessing their academic performance based on measurements of four content subjects: Chinese, English, Physics and Biology. A total of 93 senior high school students (Grade 11 and Grade 12) participated in this study and they were enrolled in a rural school from the Guizhou province, China. Our results yielded no significant differences in overall test scores between Grade 11 and Grade 12. Repeated measures multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) across grade level showed stagnant progress in English reading and a decrease in science-related subjects, which indicates a plateau of academic achievements in rural secondary education. Furthermore, the interactional analysis identified a gender gap leaning toward male students because boys scored higher than girls in the three tested subjects. Applied implications were discussed with respect to sustainable education development in rural areas.