The Impact of School Characteristics on Academic Performance of Migrant Children in China

Abstract

For many years, Chinese internal migrants have constantly faced social inequalities and problems. Their children, known as migrant children, are particularly vulnerable to education inequality during the whole education process. This paper focuses on migrant children and examines the difference of academic performance of migrant children in public schools and in non-public schools. The analysis finds that there is a gap between academic performance of migrant children in different types of school, with academic performance of migrant children in non-public school significantly worse than those who in public school. The paper further explores how school characteristics, including school facilities, school administration and teachers, influence the academic performance of migrant children and the effect of each characteristic. The results show that controlling individual and family factors of migrant children, the effects of school characteristics on academic performance are significant and can remove the gap caused by school type. The effects of school facilities are the most substantive. The findings of this paper suggest that school quality, described by the school characteristics, accounts for the gap in academic performance of migrant children in different types of school. It is essential to improve school facilities, equally distribute education resources, and promote good practices of school administration across different types of schools in order to eliminate education outcome inequality among migrant children.