REAP co-director Scott Rozelle builds on a ten-part series for Caixin Magazine titled, "Inequality 2030: Glimmering Hope in China in a Future Facing Extreme Despair." In his fourth column, Rozelle explains what can be done to help increase rural kids' educational readiness. 

REAP co-director Scott Rozelle builds on a ten-part series for Caixin Magazine titled, "Inequality 2030: Glimmering Hope in China in a Future Facing Extreme Despair." In his fourth column, Rozelle explains what can be done to help increase rural kids' educational readiness.

To read the column in Chinese, click here.

> To read Column 1: Why We Need to Worry About Inequality, click here.

> To read Column 2: China's Inequality Starts During the First 1,000 Days, click here.  

> To read Column 3: Behind Before They Start - The Preschool Years (Part 1), click here. 

> To read Column 5: How to Cure China's Largest Epidemic, click here.

> To read Column 6: A Tale of Two Travesties, click here. 

Image

Inequality 2030:

Glimmering Hope in China in a Future Facing Extreme Despair

Caixin Column 4: Behind Before They Start - The Preschool Years

(Part 2)

Following the recent policy changes aimed at expanding preschool offerings in rural China, REAP ran an experiment to see just what was becoming of the government’s effort. The experiment was simple. We chose 150 children to be part of our study. They were living in about 100 villages in a poor rural Henan county. Before any intervention, all children were given Dr. Ou’s educational readiness test as a way to gauge the starting point for the children’s baseline level of development. After this, half of the children were randomly selected to receive full scholarships, allowing their parents to send them to the preschool of their choice. The scholarship made preschool absolutely free. The other half of the parents received no financial support—their children only went to preschool if the family decided to pay the tuition and other fees themselves. The parents in the control group were not told that other parents in their county were given scholarships and the random assignment to scholarship or control group was done in a way that the average starting educational readiness scores were identical.

So what was the result? First, the good news. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the scholarships encouraged a lot more participation in preschool. By the time their children were five years old, 35 percent more parents in the scholarship group were sending their kids to preschool. This experiment thus makes clear that high preschool tuition does indeed present a considerable barrier to preschool enrollment. This is good news in the sense that this is an easily resolvable problem—if the government commits to making preschool tuition-free (like elementary and junior high school) we can expect many more parents to send their kids to preschool and reap the benefits. This is a tangible step that the government can (and should) take as soon as possible.

But of course, there was also bad news. Do you remember what the international literature said? Going to preschool is one of the keys to early childhood development. However, in our experiment we found that attending preschool in rural areas had no effect on kids’ educational readiness. More specifically, we found that despite the increased levels of preschool attendance, the average level of educational readiness did not rise at all. As noted above, the students were randomly assigned to the scholarship and control groups so that their scores on Dr. Ou’s educational readiness tests before our intervention were identical. Unfortunately, the test scores of the children in the scholarship and control groups were still identical a few years later when the children were getting ready to start elementary school—even though 35 percent more of the children in the scholarship group had spent that time in preschool. In other words, going to preschool did not improve the kids’ educational readiness in any measurable way. 

So what happened? Why didn’t attending preschool help these kids? Of course, the answer is relatively simple, though hugely disheartening. Quite simply, the quality of the preschool programs in rural areas remained low. The quality of these programs was so low, in fact, that attending preschool had no effect whatsoever on educational readiness. 

Visits to rural China’s preschools make it clear what the problems are. They are mostly the same as we saw before: high teacher-to-student ratios, poorly trained teachers, and non-existent curriculum. In fact, in addition to the schools in which students were left to sit alone in dark rooms, in the most active and prestigious preschools we visited we found that during the preschool hours—a time when children should be learning to explore and play and find their interests—the main activity was memorizing characters and being drilled in arithmetic. It seems that the huge recent investment in preschools was in many areas just an ill-founded attempt to move the first grade’s rote memorization curriculum ahead to the preschool years, rather than a sincere effort to build the sort of engaging preschool curriculum that has been found to be so powerful in recent international research.

This suggests that the direction for policy change is not as simple as we might have hoped. Even if more children gain access to preschool, as long as the quality of the programs remains so low, attending preschool will have no impact on educational outcomes. In fact, this sort of increased spending on preschool might be thought to be a waste of resources: why spend all the time and money building up a system and encouraging children to go to preschool when the children develop equally well (or equally poorly) when they are just allowed to hang out in the village and play with their friends and families?

So we ask again: what needs to be done?

China does need to continue to invest in preschools. The recent extension of preschool offerings was a critical first step, but these efforts must be followed by a true commitment to extending the opportunity to all rural children. And that can only happen if preschool is free: as long as high tuition is a barrier to attending preschool, inequality will continue to increase and the poorest rural children, the ones that most need a leg up on their education, will be unable to get it. We actually believe that preschool should be mandatory—at least in poor areas. In the same way that all children are going to elementary school these days, all kids in the 21^st century should be going to preschool.

But even more important is that the quality of preschools needs to improve. This effort must start with improving facilities and equipment, but we believe it is even more important to train young, dynamic teachers that are schooled in new and exciting, flexible and age-appropriate curricula. Preschool is not the time to begin math and science and Chinese literature. It is the time to learn to play and socialize, to be curious and learn to learn.

We wish we could say we had a magical, one-size-fits all curriculum in mind. In fact, in no country is there such a thing. As I learned in raising my own very different sons, different children need different learning environments. They need teachers that can help identify their strengths and weaknesses. They need teachers that can coach them through creative and exciting programs. And they need preschool programs that will truly prepare them to engage when it comes time to start the real work in elementary school.

There are some innovative programs being tested today, mostly being promoted by foundations, NGOs, and private entrepreneurs-cum-educators. These efforts, however, represent only a very small sliver of what is going on today in preschool programming. Most new preschool programing is being taken on by local governments. Unfortunately, we have seen little evidence that local governments are interested in these sorts of innovative solutions. This must stop. The time has come for the extension of creative, original and constructive preschool programming to all of China’s toddlers. Only then can we can make sure that rural students are made ready to hit the starting gate at the same pace as their urban peers.

The coastal seas of East Asia, particularly from the East China Sea down to the South China Sea, have become an arena for growing tension and even the threat of military conflict, sparked by contention over maritime freedom, territorial disputes, and great power rivalry.

The East China Sea has developed into a major theater for these tensions, driven by the larger strategic rivalry between China and Japan. The two countries continue to clash over competing claims to uninhabited islets currently administered by Japan, the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands. That dispute gained added steam recently when China declared an Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) that overlapped those islands.

As both countries assert their presence, American policymakers worry about the maintenance of peace and security in the region, as well as ensuring freedom on the seas and of the air, including for U.S. military forces.

Two important seminar series at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center this winter quarter—one examining the future of China under the new leadership of Xi Jinping, and a second looking at the Sino-Japanese rivalry—explore these issues in depth and examine the dynamics of China-Japan-U.S. relations in the region, delving into the territorial and security tensions between China and Japan, the U.S. role and the implications of this for long-term stability. 

Andrew Erickson, an associate in research at Harvard University’s John King Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, offered a detailed account of China’s maritime and military development and how it fits into long-term Chinese strategy. Erickson, who recently deployed with the USS Nimitz in the Asia-Pacific, painted China’s development as rapid yet uneven.

Erickson argued that China is much more intensely focused on advancing its interests in the “Near Seas,” an area that groups the Yellow Sea, East China Sea and South China Sea, than in the more distant “Far Seas.”

Erickson said, “Washington must redouble its efforts to communicate effectively with Beijing and cooperate in areas of mutual interest, particularly in the 'Far Seas,' he recommended, “while maintaining the capability, credibility, and determination to ensure the bottom-line requirement for Asia-Pacific peace and stability: that no one can use force, or even the threat of force, to change the status quo.”

In a separate lecture focused on Sino-Japanese rivalry in the East China Sea, Richard C. Bush III, director of the Center for East Asia Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution, said our concern should be focused on how Japan and China seek to assert their conflicting island and maritime claims. Even though the likelihood of war between the two countries is low, Bush argued that the climate still deserves careful attention because history shows territorial issues can be a casual factor for conflict.

Further to this point, Bush said the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands and ADIZ disputes are “exposed lightning rods for domestic politics” that could encourage each nation’s leadership toward hasty and perhaps regrettable decisions. He asserted that risk reduction measures in the region should be improved including reestablishing communication channels and creating “rules of the road” for the ADIZ and island territories.

The Sino-Japanese Rivalry and China under Xi Jinping seminar series will continue through spring quarter. Please consult the events section for further detail.

Mark Peattie, Ph.D., noted scholar of Japanese Imperial history, died peacefully, surrounded by family on January 22, 2014 in San Rafael, California; he was 83. 

Peattie was born in Nice, France, to expatriate writers Donald Culross and Louise Redfield Peattie on May 3, 1930. He returned to the United States with his parents and his two brothers, Malcom R. Peattie and Noel R. Peattie. He grew up in Santa Barbara, where he graduated from Laguna Blanca School. He went on to get a B.A. in history at Pomona College. He served in the U.S. Army from 1952 to 1954, including an assignment in counter-intelligence in Europe.

In 1955, after completing his M.A. in history at Stanford University, Peattie began his career as an American cultural diplomat with the U.S. Information Agency. He began his stint in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where he served for two years. His nine years in Japan started in Sendai; in Tokyo he trained intensively in Japanese language before serving as director of the American Cultural Center in Kyoto.

In 1967, after serving a final year in diplomacy in Washington, D.C., his love of history called him to the world of academia. After earning his Ph.D. in modern Japanese history from Princeton University, he taught at Pennsylvania State University, the University of California – Los Angeles and the University of Massachusetts in Boston. For many years, Peattie was a research fellow at the Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies at Harvard University. He was also a senior research staff member of the Hoover Institute on War, Revolution, and Peace, before becoming a visiting scholar at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University.

His publications include The Battle for China: Essays on the Military History of the Sino-Japanese War of 1937–1945, Stanford University Press; Sunburst: The Rise of Japanese Naval Air Power, 1909 –1941, Naval Institute Press; Nan'yō: The Rise and Fall of the Japanese in Micronesia, 1885–1945, University of Hawaii Press; Kaigun: Strategy, Tactics, and Technology in the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1887–1941 (with David C. Evans), U.S. Naval Institute Press; The Japanese Wartime Empire, 1931–1945 (with Peter Duus and Ramon H. Myers), Princeton University Press;The Japanese Colonial Empire, 1895-1945, Princeton University Press; and Ishiwara Kanji and Japan's Confrontation with the West, Princeton University Press.                                                                 

Peattie was married to the late Alice Richmond Peattie for 52 years and is survived by his daughters Victoria Peattie Helm of Mercer Island, Washington; Caroline Peattie of Mill Valley, California; son David Peattie of Berkeley, California; nieces Dana VanderMey and Hilary Peattie, both of Santa Barbara; and grandchildren, Brendan Shuichi, Marcus Takeshi, Kylie Max, Kai Schorske, and Jessica Susan.

Mark Peattie passionately believed in sensible handgun control laws to reduce deaths and injuries.  In lieu of flowers the family requests donations be directed to www.bradycampaign.org.

Services will be held at a later date. Please sign the online guestbook to see updated service information at www.cusimanocolonial.com.

Microblogs, Youtube, and mobile communications. These are a few of the digital platforms changing how we connect, and subsequently, reshaping global societies. 

Confluence of technology and pervasive desire for information has in effect created widespread adoption. There is no doubt the Information Technology (IT) revolution is in full swing.

Comparing case studies across Asia and the United States, the fifth and final Stanford Kyoto Trans-Asian Dialogue (DISCONTINUED) considered opportunities and challenges posed by digital media. Experts and top-level administrators from Stanford and universities across Asia, as well as policymakers, journalists, and business professionals, met in Kyoto on Sept. 12-13, 2013.

Relevant questions asked included: What shifts have occurred in traditional versus digital media for how people get information, and how does this differ across countries? What is the potential for digital media in civil society and democratization? Is it a force for positive change or a source of instability?

In the presentations and discussion sessions, participants raised a number of key, policy-relevant points, which are highlighted in the Dialogue’s final report. These include:

Digital media does not, on its own, automatically revolutionize politics or foster greater democratization. While the Internet and digital media can play an instrumental role, particularly where traditional media is highly controlled by the government, participants cautioned against overemphasizing the hype. One conception is that the Internet can instead be viewed as a catalyst or powerful multiplier, but only if a casual chain of latent interest exists. That being said, greater exposure of youth to digital media, particularly in areas of tight media control, can open new areas of awareness.

The upending of traditional media business models has not been replaced by viable digital media business models. As media organizations struggle with their business models, the quality of reporting is threatened. For traditional organizations, maintaining public trust can be challenging, particularly during wars after disasters, while in areas with previously tightly controlled press, digital media may be perceived as more authentic. On the one hand, policy-driven agenda setting may be easier in some issue areas, but digital media may amplify interest in controversial issues, particularly with history issues in Asia.

As Cloud Computing platforms provided by a small group of mostly U.S. companies is increasingly the underlying platform for digital media—as well as our digital lives in general—issues of information security and privacy are at the forefront of much of the public’s mind. Revelations by former U.S. contractor Edward Snowden about the extent of the US government’s espionage activities raise concerns among journalists concerned with issues such as free speech of the press, media independence from government, and protection of sources. 

Previous Dialogues have brought together a diverse range of scholars and thought leaders from Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, India, Australia and the United States. Participants have explored issues such as the global environmental and economic impacts of energy usage in Asia and the United States; the question of building an East Asian regional organization; and addressing higher education policy and the dramatic demographic shift across Asia.

The annual Stanford Kyoto Trans-Asian Dialogue was made possible through the generosity of the City of Kyoto, the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University, and Yumi and Yasunori Kaneko.