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Under China’s market reforms of the past quarter century, the process of becoming educated has changed in dramatic ways. China’s new wealth and new inequalities are part of the story. However, educational opportunities and attainment are also affected by changes in educational policy. Since the end of the Cultural Revolution in the late 1970s, leaders have moved educational policies away from a radical socialist agenda. Three particularly important changes have occurred. First, reform-era educational policies have sought to improve quality to make schooling better serve the needs of the labor market, stimulate the economy, and promote China’s global competitiveness. Second, reform-era educational policies have placed a new priority on efficient use of resources, including private resources, to support education. Third, reform-era educational policies display a new tolerance for disparities within the system …