School After School: Boarding, Schooling and SES-based Achievement Gap

• In Event: 20880 - Historical Foundations and New Directions: 21st Century Sociology of Education

Abstract

Boarding schools have long been associated with elite education and social reproduction, yet little is known about their role in within-school inequality, particularly in mass education systems. This study examines whether boarding schools can serve as equalizers rather than stratifiers, focusing on their impact on socioeconomic-status-based achievement gaps in rural China. Using data from the China Education Panel Survey (CEPS, 2013–2015), I employ inverse probability weighting to estimate the heterogeneous effects of boarding on academic achievement across students of different socioeconomic backgrounds.

The analysis distinguishes between (1) the home replacement effect—where boarding reduces reliance on family resources by extending structured school exposure—and (2) the structural effect of boarding schools—where institutional arrangements may shape student outcomes beyond home replacement alone. Findings indicate that boarding disproportionately benefits socioeconomically disadvantaged students, primarily through the home replacement effect, with weaker evidence supporting an independent structural effect of boarding schools. These results challenge prevailing sociological narratives that view boarding schools solely as mechanisms of elite reproduction.

By shifting attention from between-school stratification to within-school inequality, this study contributes to the sociology of education by introducing boarding as an underexamined institutional mechanism for mitigating achievement disparities. The findings also engage with the seasonal learning gap debate, reinforcing the argument that extended school exposure can reduce educational inequality. While focused on China, this study offers broader insights into how residential schooling models, such as rural boarding schools or extended learning programs, might be utilized to support disadvantaged students in different educational contexts.

Author

• Junchao Tang, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor