A Critical Definition of Zexiao

This chapter starts with a review of global public education reforms, emphasizing choice, efficiency, equity, excellence, and international competence, to summarize the meaning of school choice in a global context. By introducing theories and ideologies of educational selection, this chapter summarizes the shift of educational ideology with social change in China as background knowledge to further understand the development of Zexiao. Then, it reviews the development of Zexiao in China through social development and the changes in public school admission policies between the 1980s and the 2000s. It introduces the diversity and complexity of public junior high school admission and the channels of student placement in this process. The chapter concludes by summarizing the nature of Zexiao by examining the similarities and differences between Zexiao and school choice in general.