University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Doctoral Dissertations Dissertations and Theses July 2020 The Institutional Pillars of China's National College Entrance Exam: A Case Study of Gaozhong High School and NCEE Reforms Mei Lan Frame University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_2 Part of the Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons, International and Comparative Education Commons, Secondary Education Commons, and the Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education Commons Recommended Citation Frame, Mei Lan, "The Institutional Pillars of China's National College Entrance Exam: A Case Study of Gaozhong High School and NCEE Reforms" (2020). 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THE INSTITUTIONAL PILLARS OF CHINA’S NATIONAL COLLEGE ENTRANCE EXAM: A CASE STUDY OF GAOZHONG HIGH SCHOOL AND NCEE REFORMS A Dissertation Presented by MEI LAN FRAME Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSPHY May 2020 College of Education © Copyright by Mei Lan Frame 2020 All Rights Reserved THE INSTITUTIONAL PILLARS OF CHINA’S NATIONAL COLLEGE ENTRANCE EXAM: A CASE STUDY OF GAOZHONG HIGH SCHOOL AND NCEE REFORMS A Dissertation Presented By MEI LAN FRAME Approved as to style and content by: __________________________________ Bjorn Nordtveit, Chair __________________________________ Sharon Rallis, Member __________________________________ Laurel Smith-Doerr, Member ____________________________________ Jennifer Randall Associate Dean of Academic Affairs College of Education DEDICATION To my parents, Edward and Su Moi and To Beijing ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My sincere gratitude to my advisor, Bjorn Nordtveit, for his attentive support, guidance, and help during my years of study and writing. Here’s to dive bars. Also, I wish to thank Sharon Rallis, who mentored me in so many ways, encouraged me in my interests, and was always up for eating Chinese food. And much thanks to Laurel Smith- Doerr, for her advice and assistance with thorny institutional theory issues, and for referencing the Tardis in class. Big thanks are in order for Jack Guo Qin Gong, my interpreter, whose input and assistance with translations were invaluable. And many thanks to Yi Sun and Shamo Thar, for their patient and generous help with corrections and language issues, and great Chinese cooking. Special thanks also to the teachers, administrators, students and parents of Gaozhong high school, without whom this research would never have been completed. I also wish to thank the faculty, students/fellow colleagues, and Barbara at CIE for their friendship, help, support, and awesome baked goods. Finally, I wish to thank the Beijing and Hong Kong (visa run) crew: MattPaolaRoyAliceJessicaEvieOliviaMichanDhuruvBobJerryPanNiuLanDomLiuWinnie Dalida StijnWillSiMaKaiNathanTimLucioGoldieAstraJoshuaTjyMusicbyMojohand. v ABSTRACT THE INSTITUTIONAL PILLARS OF CHINA’S NATIONAL COLLEGE ENTRANCE EXAM: A CASE STUDY OF GAOZHONG HIGH SCHOOL AND NCEE REFORMS MAY 2020 MEI LAN FRAME, M.A., UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN M.A., UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII Ph.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Bjorn Nordtveit This dissertation is based on a case study of a Beijing high school (referred to as “Gaozhong”) during the initial wave of reforms to the National College Entrance Exam (NCEE). Using the conceptual framework of Richard Scott’s “three pillars” of institutions (2008) to analyze stake holder perception toward the NCEE (administrators, teachers, parents, and students), this study identifies and examines the regulatory, normative, and cultural-cognitive elements that comprise the NCEE. Congruent with Scott’s theory that these the combined strength and interdependency between institutional elements prevent institutional change, this study also analyzes the three pillars as barriers to the implementation of NCEE reform at Gao Zhong high school. An institutional analysis of the NCEE argues for a perspective of the NCEE as the task of education rather than, as is often argued, the purpose of education in China. At Gao Zhong, an “authority of scores” underlies the regulatory pillar; participants stress the many procedures and outputs of the NCEE that enable both knowledge and student effort to be codified, assessed, and translated into access to higher education opportunity, all through the singular score of the NCEE. Nonetheless, what is valued and gained in education derives more from the process of the Exam, rather than the test itself, harking back to a long tradition in Chinese education on the importance of “character.” Meanwhile, the legitimacy of a “single score” on the NCEE is viewed as fair and objective despite participant awareness of inequality in educational resources and urban bias in quotas. Participants cognitively maintain the NCEE as an antidote to corruption and connections associated with wealth; their perspectives bring greater nuance to the meaning of “fairness” and “equality” in studies in Chinese education. Regarding NCEE reforms, findings suggest superficial rather than substantive change at Gao Zhong, and reveal deeper issues of NCEE reform as a whole. Of particular importance are non-test forms of assessment that lack the legitimacy of score-based assessment, and the issue of student choice across subjects within a system heavily weighted in favor of science rather than fine arts. vi PREFACE On November 12, 2013, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China announced a series of comprehensive reforms1 aimed towards achievement of a “moderately prosperous society” (小康社会), parlance for government efforts geared towards sustainable and equitable social and economic development (Hu, 2017). Among the wide-ranging lists of reforms is reform of the National College Entrance Examination system (NCEE), designed to change the disadvantages of a system where “one’s fate (life) is determined by one examination”2 (Decision, 2013, p.12) – an often quoted saying regarding education in China (Zhu, 2016). Changes to the system include a comprehensive system of evaluation for students, student choice of subjects across previous set streams of fine arts or science classes, and multiple chances to sit parts of the exam3. These reforms were piloted in 2014 in Shanghai and Zhejiang and later rolled out in Beijing, Tianjin, Shandong and Hainan in 2017 (Luo, 2015). This dissertation is based on a case study of a Chinese urban high school in Beijing, referred to by the psuedonym Gao Zhong (GZ), in fall 2017, during the initial implementation of reforms hailed as the “largest, most extensive, and most difficult reform” to the NCEE system (Wan, 2018). Through an empirical study of how stakeholders at GZ high school (administrators, teachers, parents, and students) perceive the NCEE, I set out to understand the rules, norms, and beliefs that uphold the ‘former’ 1 Central Committee of the CCP, (2013) “Decision of the CCCPC on Some Major Issues Concerning Comprehensively Deepening the Reform”, Third Plenary Session of the 18th National Congress. 2 从根本上解决一考定终身的弊端 3 Furthered in detail and scope by the later State Council document, Deepening the Implementation of the Reform of the Examination Enrollment System, (国 务 院 关 于 深 化 考 试 招 生制度改革的实施意见) 2014 vii NCEE system, and how these serve as barriers to new reforms. Adapting Scott's “three pillars” framework of institutions (Scott, 2008), this study identifies and examines the regulatory, normative, and cultural-cognitive elements of the NCEE and the NCEE system. I argue for the three pillars as a conceptual tool that provides a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of the NCEE; however, I also examine how particular aspects of Scott’s framework, as well as other theoretical assumptions of institutional theory, are not consistent with findings. Through this analysis, I offer a perspective on the feasibility of change to the NCEE system, as policy reforms require change in some elements, but not in others. Much scholarship on the NCEE has focused on its structure of rules and quotas (Kipnis, 2001; Liu et al, 2012), as well as its cultural roots and prevailing social expectations. Research tends to use the Exam as an explanatory factor, for example, why quality education reforms (suzhi jiaoyu, 素质教育) continue to fail in Chinese schools and classrooms (Lou, 2011; Marton, 2006; Yan, 2015; Chen, 2010, Dello-Iacovo, 2009), or how the Exam is legitimized through an ethos of hard work and fairness (Wang & Ross, 2010; Mutthana & Sang, 2015). In this study, I sought to enlarge this literature; the “tension” of implementing reforms was used to ‘bring to the forefront’ stakeholder perceptions of the NCEE and challenges towards changing the system. Through the investigation of broader meaning systems, this dissertation offers another ‘reality’ of China’s NCEE, one that explores ‘below-the surface’ norms and cultural-cognitive beliefs that are often excluded in studies of the NCEE. By focusing on “idealist concerns – the symbolic systems, cognitive