The Effect of Testing on Chinese Education and Parenting

July 27, 2016

Based on his recent experiences while conducting research in China, Matt Hora contributed to Education Week’s Global Learning opinion blog.

From the article:

On a recent visit to the eastern Chinese city of Qingdao to study the skills gap between higher education and the labor market, I had a different translator with me each day. They were mostly female English instructors in their early 30s, and they accompanied me on tours of cavernous manufacturing facilities, boardroom conversations with HR directors and recently hired workers, as well as interviews with college professors and administrators.

Paradoxes

One of the biggest surprises of my trip, however, had nothing to do with the state of China's workforce—it was how my translators spoke so unambiguously about the negative aspects of the Chinese educational system and parenting culture, and yet, at the same time, seemed to embrace them.

Read more.