The Relationship Between Educational Expectations And Academic Performance Of Junior High School Students In Western Rural Areas

With the worsening of the aging society degree and the gradual disappearance of the "demographic dividend",China's economic growth rate has gradually slowed down,from high growth to the high quality development.The accumulation of human capital is a strong guarantee for the high quality economy development.Education is an effective way to enhance the accumulation of human capital.More than 53%of the population is in rural China,rural children as an important source of future labor force,their education is directly related to the accumulation of human capital level of our country,which is crucial for China's economic transition and economy development quality.Since reform and opening-up,China's education has made great progress,but the rural education situation is not optimistic,which is hindering the rural human capital accumulation,which is not conducive to the stable,sustainable and high-quality development of our economy.Because of the relatively poor academic performance,more rural junior middle school students gradually lose confidence,and eventually leave their school early.There are many factors that influence students' academic performance,such as the degree of parental involvement,the size of school and the quality of teachers.But these external factors can not fully explain students' academic performance.Therefore,some researchers focus on the students' own educational aspiration and the relationship between students' intrinsic educational aspiration and academic performance.Students' educational aspiration is not only closely related to academic performance,but also has a significant impact on students' final education attainment.However,less attention has been paid to educational aspiration,which is closely related to rural junior middle school students' academic performance and education attainment,little research involving in the study of the relationship between educational aspiration and academic performance of rural junior middle school students in western China.Therefore,the main goal of this research are fully understanding the situation of rural junior middle school students' educational aspiration,analyzing the relationship between educational aspiration and academic performance and the heterogeneity in these two variables' relationship among the different students.providing an empirical basis for improving the academic performance and education attainment of rural junior middle school students.The difficulty of analyzing relationship between educational aspiration and academic performance is the strong correlation between the two variables.There may be a reverse causality.It is difficult to explain that educational aspiration affects academic performance or academic performance affects educational aspirations.The cross-lagged design uses the correlation coefficients over time to analyze the quasi causal relationship between the two variables.To a certain extent,it can understand the relationship between the two variables more accurately.Therefore,this study refers to somerelated research results,and uses cross-lagged regression analysis to study the relationship between educational aspiration and academic performance of rural junior middle school students.The results of this study show that the rural junior middle school students'educational aspiration is generally high,and about 80%students hope to go to college and above.The students' educational aspiration is not constant.With the rising of their grade,some students adjust their educational aspirations.Controlling the other related factors,rural students' educational aspiration and academic performance can predict each other significantly,but the path from educational aspiration to academic performance seems to be stronger than the reverse,which is different from the existing research results.In addition,through the study of the heterogeneity in the relationship between educational aspiration and academic performance,the path from boys' educational aspirations to academic performance is stronger,poorer students' educational aspiration can better predict their academic performance,with the increase of their grade,predicting relationship from educational aspiration to academic performance is becoming weaker.Finally,based on the conclusion of this study,the author puts forward a few ideas.Higher educational aspiration and better academic performance are the important factors that affect the students' final education attainment.Higher educational aspiration is conducive to academic performance improvement,and better academic performance will also help students improve their educational aspiration,and educational aspiration and academic performance will reinforce each other.Students with higher educational aspirations and better academic performance are more likely to achieve higher academic achievement.Students who have low educational aspiration and poor academic performance may fall into a vicious circle and leave school too early.For those who have low educational aspiration and poor academic performance,parents and teachers should help these students maintain positive educational aspiration,and more importantly,improve students' academic performance.The educational aspiration of poorer students plays a greater role in their later academic performance.For students from poorerfamilies,it is of great significance to maintain their educational aspirations for their academic performance and final education attainment.In addition,with the increasing of students' grade,the predictive effect of students' educational aspiration on academic performance is weaker.Therefore,if there is an intervention programs concerned with educational aspiration,the earlier implementation is better for those students.