Reexamining the Effect of Private Tutoring on Academic Achievement: A Case Study of Math Tutoring in Shanghai

• In Event: Hilton Roundtable Session 2
  In Roundtable Session: International Research on STEM

Abstract

Generated by the growing student population and heightened competition in education, private tutoring (shadow education), is expanding worldwide, so much so that it is rapidly becoming an institutionalized part of schooling in many countries. Yet, private tutoring is concerned to problematize the quality and efficiency of regular schooling. Empirical research on its effect on academic performance provides inconsistent results due to the wide range of overlapping variables. Drawing upon the interconnections amongst national education system and the intergenerationally transmitted socioeconomic and cultural characteristics of students, this study seeks to evaluate the magnitude of the effect of math tutoring on academic performance and to understand how truly math tutoring is effective in the city of Shanghai, China.

Author

• Ming Yin, Rice University - Kinder Institute