张林秀，易红梅及其合作者最近发表的文章

发布日期：2013/12/26　　来源： ccap

1. Mo, Di, Linxiu Zhang, Hongmei Yi, Renfu Luo, Scott Rozelle and Carl Brinton (2013). "School Dropouts and Conditional Cash Transfers: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial in Rural China's Junior High Schools." Journal of Development Studies 49(2): 190-207.
本文旨在了解中国农村贫困地区的辍学现状，探索有条件的现金转移支付（CCT）对降低辍学率的作用。为了实现上述目的，我们在中国西北地区的一个国家级贫困县的300个贫困生中进行了一项随机控制试验。结果显示，该县的年辍学率平均为7.8%，其中，贫困生的辍学率高达13.3%。而CCT项目将学生的辍学率降低了60%。并且，CCT项目对减少那些学习成绩差的学生、女生和年级较小的学生的辍学率的效果更为显著。
The overall goal of this study is to examine if there is a dropout problem in rural China and to explore the effectiveness of a Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programme on the rate of dropping out. To meet this goal, we conduct a randomised controlled trial (RCT) to assess the impact of the CCT using a sample of the poorest 300 junior high school students in a nationally-designated poor county in Northwest China. We find that the annual dropout rate in the study county was 7.8 per cent and even higher, 13.3 per cent, among the children of poor households. We demonstrate that a CCT program reduces dropout by 60 per cent. The programme is most effective among students with poor academic performance, and likely more effective among girls and younger students.

文章下载：1_JDS-CCT.pdf

2. Chen, Xinxin, Hongmei Yi, Linxiu Zhang, Di Mo, James Chu and Scott Rozelle (2013). "Do Poor Students benefit from China's Merge Program? Transfer Path and Educational Performance." Asia Pacific Journal of Education. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02188791.2013.790781.
为了改善教育设施和提高贫困农村地区学生的学习成绩，我国政府部门在上个世纪90年代末开始将边缘农村地区的学校合并到中心村、乡镇或县城的学校。与此同时，寄宿设施也开始完善以便于让家住偏远的小学阶段的学龄儿童能住在学校而不是家里。总体上，政府部门为促进农村学校发展，尤其是县镇学校的发展做出了大量的努力。但是，很少有市政研究评估这些学校合并和投资项目对学生学业表现的影响。利用一份来自三个贫困县的涵盖小学阶段转学记录和数学考试成绩的数据，本文通过描述性分析和多元回归分析检验了转学路径与学生学习成绩之间的关系。这也将我们能否分析学校合并和投资项目的成本和收益。结果显示，在县城上学的学生的学习成绩显著优于在乡镇和村里上学的学生。但是，在乡镇上完小学似乎对学生的学习成绩没有影响。令人吃惊的是，在村里的教学点开始上小学对农村学生的学习成绩并没有负面影响；相反，这一经历有时候甚至提升了学生的学习成绩。最后，我们还发现，在学校寄宿并不仅没有帮助寄宿生，有时候甚至降低了他们的学业表现。

Aiming to provide better education facilities and improve the educational attainment of poor rural students, China’s government has been merging remote rural primary schools into centralized village, town, or county schools since the late 1990s. To accompany the policy, boarding facilities have been constructed that allow (mandate) primary school-aged children to live at school rather than at home. More generally, there also have been efforts to improve rural schools, especially those in counties and towns. Unfortunately, little empirical work has been available to evaluate the impact of the new merger and investment programmes on the educational performance of students. Drawing on a unique dataset that records both the path by which students navigate their primary school years (i.e., which different types of schools did students attend) as well as math test scores in three poverty-stricken counties, we use descriptive statistics and multivariate analysis (both Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and covariate matching) to analyse the relationship between different transfer paths and student educational performance. This allows us to examine the costs and benefits of the school merger and investment programmes. The results of the analysis show that students who attend county schools perform systematically better than those who attend village or town schools. However, completing primary school in town schools seems to have no effect on students’ academic performance. Surprisingly, starting primary education in a teaching point does not hurt rural students; on the contrary, it increases their test scores in some cases. Finally, in terms of the boarding effect, the neutral estimate in OLS and the negative estimate in covariate matching results confirm that boarding at school does not help the students; in some cases it may even reduce their academic performance.

文章下载:2_APJE.pdf

3. Zhou, Zhongqiang, Junxia Zeng, Xiaochen Ma, Xiaopeng Pang, Hongmei Yi, Qianyu Chen, Mirjam Meltzer, Mingguang He, Scott Rozelle and Nathan G Congdon (2013). "Accuracy of rural refractionists in western China." Investigative ophthalmology & visual science: IOVS-13-13250.  文章链接：http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24327616
目标：评价我国西部农村地区验光师验光误差的发生率和独立预测指标。
样本与方法：地方验光师对样本小学的学生首先进行散瞳和自动验光，然后对这些学生进行了主观验光。经上述检查，一些学生被检查出任一单眼的裸眼视力（VA）在6/12及其以下。为了进行质量控制，来自大学的验光师对这些学生进行了再次验光。
结果：在502名学生中（平均年龄10.5岁，女生占53.2%），21个农村验光师（66.7%只有高中及其以下教育水平）验光质量差（误差>=1.0D）的独立预测指标包括远视（OR=4.2，95% CI 1.4-7.3，P<0.001），散光(OR = 3.8, 95% CI 2.5 - 5.6, P < 0.001)和视力矫正不到6/12以上 (OR = 4.7, 95% CI 3.1 - 7.3, P =< 0.001)。在农村验光师查出的任一单眼视力不可矫正的201个学生中，经来自大学的验光师复查有110个学生（54.7%）的视力可以提高到6/12以上。我们估计，如经复查，9.1%的学生的视力能被提高。验光不准确的一个原因是即便在散瞳之后，农村验光师仍然错误地倾向于调整验光结果。
结论：中国西部农村地区的验光师缺乏正规的培训，即便使用了自动验光仪，他们也往往不能测出学生的最佳视力。需要培训这些验光师如何更好地使用自动验光仪，特别是在孩子有散光和远视的情况下。

Purpose: To assess the prevalence and predictors of inaccurate refractive error among rural refractionists in western China.
Subjects and Methods: A subset of primary school children with visual acuity (VA) <= 6/12 in >= 1 eye, undergoing subjective refinement by local refractionists after cycloplegic auto-refraction in an on-going population-based study, received repeat refraction by university optometrists for quality control.
Results: Among 502 children (mean age 10.5 years, 53.2% girls), independent predictors of poor (inaccurate by >= 1.0D) refraction by 21 rural practitioners (66.7% with high school or lower education) included hyperopia (Odds ratio [OR] 4.2, 95% Confidence Interval [CI ] 2.4 - 7.3, P < 0.001), astigmatism (OR = 3.8, 95% CI 2.5 - 5.6, P < 0.001) and visual acuity uncorrectable to > 6/12 by the rural refractionist (OR = 4.7, 95% CI 3.1 - 7.3, P =< 0.001). Among 201 children whose vision was uncorrectable in >= 1 eye by the rural refractionists, vision could be improved to > 6/12 by the university optometrist in 110 (54.7%). We estimate vision could be so improved in 9.1% of all children refracted by these rural refractionists. A reason for inaccuracy in this setting is the erroneous tendency of rural refractionists to adjust instrument values for accommodation, even under cycloplegia.
Conclusions: Rural refractionists in western China have little formal training and frequently fail to optimize visual acuity among children, even when auto-refractors are used. Training is needed emphasizing better use of automated refraction, particularly in children with astigmatism and hyperopia.