Some of the factors that affect the educational disparities among different regions are the family background, the educational environment, and the movement of the school-aged population. Among these, the movement of school-aged population is often c...
Some of the factors that affect the educational disparities among different regions are the family background, the educational environment, and the movement of the school-aged population. Among these, the movement of school-aged population is often cited as one of the main contributing factors that leads to a higher level of academic achievement in a small and medium-sized provincial cities when compared to big metropolitan areas. In particular, the movement of students with high academic achievements not only causes and widens the gap between regional academic achievements but also makes the vicious cycle to repeat.
This research analyzed the actual conditions and the reasons of secondary education gaps in two adjoining small and medium-sized provincial cities. Two regions, Asan and Cheonan, both located in Chungcheongnam-do, were chosen because they are geographically and culturally close, and because there is a gap between the university entrance ratios of the two regions. For a positive analysis, parents of middle schoolers were surveyed to find out whether there is a difference in the level of perception based on different socio-economic backgrounds of parents and their child’s grades, and whether such perception of the gap is evolving into an intension to move to another region.
The comparison of the educational gap between the two cities revealed that:
First, throughout elementary schools to high schools, differences in the general educational conditions do not exist between the two regions except in the academic achievement level. The fact that percentage of the students who entered 4-year universities differed by 11 percentage points (76.8% in Cheonan, and 65.8% in Asan) confirmed that an academic achievement gap exists during the high school years.
Second, among parents who are in the age range of 30 to 50, 19.8% of those surveyed in Cheonan had 4-year university degrees, whereas only 12.0% had them in Asan. The means that the two cities differed by 7.8 percentage points, confirming that there is a gap between the two regions in terms of the family background of the students’ parents.
Third, the phenomenon of students from Asan moving to Cheonan before the students enter high schools continues to exist. Since most of them are students with high academic grades, this was revealed as one of the main factors contributing to the high school academic achievement gap.
Fourth, the distribution ratio of school-aged population was high in Cheonan, while the distribution ratio of the parental age group was high in Asan. In the case of Asan, the ratio of the population aged 10 to 19 compared to Cheonan is 34.7%. However the elementary school graduation ratio is 31.3%, that of middle school graduation is 27.5%, and the academic high school enrollment ratio is 25.2%. This indicated that the movement of school-aged population occurs continuously throughout elementary to high school.
The survey on the parents of middle schoolers, done to verify the factors revealed from the comparison analysis on the two regions, gave the following results:
First, Those with higher income, or higher expenditures on private education perceived higher percentages of regional education disparities. Also, the place (downtown, regional subdivisions) and the duration of residence did not affect the level of awareness on the disparities.
Second, as the students move up from elementary schools to high schools, their perception of regional education gap widened, from 46.4% among parents of elementary schoolers, 66.8% among those of middle schoolers, and 68.4% among those of high schoolers. Moreover, the higher the education of parents, and higher the grades of children, the more one perceived the regional education disparities.
Third, 49.6% of the surveyed answered positive for to enrollment in high schools in the other region, Cheonan; but, of those in the top 10% average grade points, 78.2% answered positive, indicating that the number of people inclined to enroll in high schools in the other region increases as the respondent’s academic achievement level rises.
In the above analysis, the existence of a gap between the parents’ socio-economic backgrounds and the continuous movement of school-aged population starting from elementary schoolers were shown to be the main factors contributing to the academic achievement disparities between the two cities. The higher the education of parents, and higher the grades of children, the greater amount of the educational gap residents of Asan recognized. Such recognition is realized by selecting a school in Cheonan when entering high school. As the academically excelled students in Asan move to Cheonan, the composition of high school students in both cities is altered, and this works as the aggravating factor of the already wide academic achievement gap among high schoolers.
The study showed that among college entrance policies, high school ranking system will have a negative effect, whereas, more weight on in-school grades and more special quota for students from rural regions will have positive effects on narrowing the regional education gap. Moreover, it was suggested that high schools that can replace some of the highly recognized high schools in Cheonan such as special purpose high schools or independent private schools should be built, that the preexisting schools should be changed in order to narrow the gap, and that the local autonomous governments should allocate more budget on scholarships and education, so that the regional education disparities can be narrowed