To live or not to live at school? Boarding school impact on standardized academic outcomes for left-behind, rural, and low-income students in China

Abstract

China's education system is striving to improve educational quality and address disparities. Recent policy initiatives have focused on providing better opportunities for left-behind students—those from low-income and rural backgrounds whose parents have sought employment elsewhere. One of these policies was the establishment of schools in rural areas that offer boarding education. Though early studies on this policy have raised/found safety and health concerns, there is little evidence of whether boarding education impact rural students and low-income students differently than their urban and non-low-income peers. Relying on non-self-reported, longitudinal academic outcomes (China Education Panel Survey) of a nationally representative sample of Chinese students, we offer quasi-experimental estimates (via doubly robust propensity score weighting and Oster’s sensitivity checks) of the impact of boarding education on Chinese, Mathematics, and English outcomes. We found strong evidence of positive impact of boarding education on Chinese and Mathematics, particularly among low SES and rural students. However, for English performance and the results for high SES and urban students, boarding education was not better than commuting from home. Our discussion elaborates on the mechanisms behind these findings and emphasizes the significance of our research findings for policymakers and its relevance to educational practices. Replication code/data access: https://cutt.ly/meS3atYc.