“特岗”教师政策效果分析———教师队伍与教育公平的视角

Evaluating the Effect of Specially Contracted Teachers Plan on Equal Access to Qualified Teachers in Rural Compulsory Education

Chinese central government initiated the Specially Contracted Teachers Plan in 2006， opening an alternative pathway of recruiting teachers for rural compulsory education schools. Based on province-level panel data from 2004 to 2013 and fixed effects models， this paper delineates the time trend in the change of quantity and structure of teaching staff in compulsory education， and examines whether the Plan has an effect in promoting equal access to qualified teachers in rural compulsory education. Our findings show that the Plan plays only a limited role in improving the composition of schools' teaching force in targeted areas. In order to narrow the gap between rural and urban schools in terms of access to teacher resources， we suggest the government adjust the policy program based on sophisticated estimations of teacher supply side's opportunity costs and teacher demand side's fiscal capacity.