Trends in educational stratification during China’s Great Transformation

This study looks at educational inequality in China, a country that has greatly expanded access to education in recent decades. It uses a sequential logit model to study the changing impact of family background on educational transitions, comparing birth cohorts that completed their schooling during different stages of the market transition process. Data are derived from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), a large and nationally representative household survey that provides detailed retrospective information. The findings show that educational inequality in reform-era China followed a pattern of maximally maintained inequality. Although educational expansion diminished disparities in obtaining basic education, inequality persisted or even increased in the more advanced levels, especially at the crucial transition to senior high school. Inequalities only started to decrease for the most recent cohorts, when higher-level transitions became almost universal among high-status groups. These findings can be explained by the nature of China’s economic and educational policies, which heavily favoured urban residents and other privileged groups.