How Teacher Allocation Promote the Development of Compulsory Education in Rural Counties? A Quasi-natural Experimental Study Based on the Policy of "County Management and School Recruitment"

The high-quality and balanced development of compulsory education is a key task of education reform, and the reform of "county-managed school recruitment" can break the barriers of teacher allocation, facilitate the flow from county to weak areas, and promote the overall improvement of compulsory education in weak areas. Therefore, this paper treats the policy of "county-controlled school hiring" as a quasi-natural experiment, and applies the staggered double-difference method to conduct an empirical test based on the provincial panel data from 2010 to 2020. It is found that: Firstly, the reform of "county management and school recruitment" has promoted the improvement of compulsory education in weak areas, with an average annual promotion effect of about 12.2%. Secondly, the promotion effect of the reform is heterogeneous in time and presents a significant feature of "two stages". Thirdly, in the spatial dimension, the overall trend of the reform effect is decreasing from east to west, and the reform effect in the central provinces has not been fully released. Fourthly, the reform has promoted the enhancement of compulsory education in counties by strengthening the "incentive effect" and weakening the "siphon effect", while the mechanism of education equalization has not been strengthened. Fourth, the reform has promoted the improvement of compulsory education in counties by strengthening the "incentive effect" and weakening the "siphon effect", while the mechanism of education equalization has not taken effect. Finally, the "County-Managed School-Appointed" reform should strengthen the understanding and recognition of policy objectives, enhance the professionalism of reform monitoring and evaluation, and improve the government's attention allocation.