FIRE: Forum for International Research in Education Vol. 6, Iss. 3, 2020, pp. 36-57 COMPENSATING FOR FAMILY DISADVANTAGE: AN ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECTS OF BOARDING SCHOOL ON CHINESE STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT Minda Tan1 Shandong Normal University, China Katerina Bodovski Pennsylvania State University, USA Abstract China implemented a policy to improve education equity through investing in boarding programs of public schools in rural and less-developed areas. However, this policy has not been informed by empirical research in the Chinese context. By using the nationally representative longitudinal data, this study investigates whether and to what extent boarding schools compensate for children's family disadvantages in terms of mathematics and reading achievement. The findings, drawn from multilevel logistic regression and hierarchical models, indicate that students from low-SES families or rural areas tend to board at schools. Boarding students performed better than day students in 8th-grade mathematics tests. Among students with essential needs, those residing at school during the week significantly benefitted in their school performance in both subjects. Overall, it appears that governmental investment in boarding programs can, to some extent, compensate for some family disadvantages. Keywords: boarding school; academic performance; socioeconomic status; family support; education equity 1 Correspondence: Minda Tan, 88 Wenhuadong Road, Shandong Normal University, 250014, Jinan, Shandong Province, China; Email:
[email protected] M. Tan & K. Bodovksi 37 Introduction Family educational resources are unequally allocated among families within countries. In China, students from socioeconomically disadvantaged families are challenged to achieve academic success similar to that of their peers because their parents cannot provide adequate financial and cultural resources (Luo & Zhang, 2017) .