On the vast land of our country, county-level ordinary high schools occupy half of the ordinary high schools, carrying the youth dreams of nearly 60% of high school students. The students in the county carry a longing for a better life. They need not only the nourishment of knowledge, but also the guidance of faith. However, for a long time, some county-level high schools have faced practical challenges such as lagging educational concepts, weak teaching staff, and single training models. How to revitalize county-level schools and enable children to enjoy high-quality education at their doorstep has become a contemporary issue that must be answered in the construction of an educational powerhouse. Recently, the Ministry of Education and six other departments issued the "Action Plan for Revitalizing County level Ordinary High Schools", which pointed out the direction for the revitalization of counties. Starting from this issue, we will delve into how to light up the future for county high school students, explore new paths for county education, and respond to the era's question of "what kind of people to cultivate, how to cultivate people, and for whom to cultivate people". Now it seems that letting the child stay at home and attend high school was the right move! ”Speaking of his daughter Xu Zan, who is currently in her third year of high school, father Xu Zengqiu's relief is evident in his words. My daughter has been studying at Xiongxian Third Senior High School in Xiong'an New District, Hebei Province for more than two years. Xu Zengqiu clearly felt the positive changes in her: "Learning is more conscious and goals are clearer." As a native born local, Xu Zengqiu remembers clearly that more than ten years ago, there was only one ordinary public high school in the county. At that time, parents racked their brains to send their children abroad, and 'going out to study' was almost synonymous with 'having potential'. In recent years, the county has built two new high schools, increased investment, and local high schools are getting better and better. ”Xu Zengqiu said, "Nowadays, parents talk about having a good high school right at their doorstep. Who would still send their children out?" Such changes are not uncommon in various regions. This year, Li Tie'an, director of the Institute of Basic Education at the Chinese Academy of Educational Sciences, led a team to visit 24 high schools in 12 counties and cities across 6 provinces in central and western China, including Henan, Hunan, Hebei, Shanxi, Guizhou, and Shaanxi. It is gratifying that the phenomenon of student outflow has significantly decreased in the counties we surveyed, "said Li Tie'an. For these counties that are feeling the "warming up", what is the process of students' migration from "departure" to "return"? What is the secret to the gradual revitalization of the county? The reporter conducted an interview on this matter. As a mountainous county, we have truly experienced the pain of 'blood loss'. ”The Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and Principal of Shimen County No.1 Middle School in Changde City, Hunan Province, confessed to Yan Zhen. He introduced that Shimen County is a county that combines mountainous areas, poverty-stricken counties, and revolutionary old areas. 70% of the school's students come from rural areas, 80% are ethnic students, and the proportion of left behind children is high. He presented two charts to the reporter, densely packed with data and text, detailing the school's student and faculty turnover since 2009. During the ten years from 2009 to 2019, there were dozens of students who did not report to the school after completing the middle school entrance examination, including some of the top 100 students in the county. Many excellent teachers also chose to leave, including some key teachers at the city and county levels. "Xiang Yanzhen said sadly," Good students want to leave, but good teachers cannot stay. How can the quality be improved? This vicious cycle once put the school in a dangerous situation of 'collapse' in education quality. "However, in the past five years, the situation of the loss of school students and teachers has reversed. Only a few students have normal mobility, and the teaching staff has also tended to be stable. This proves that as long as the path is right and the measures are practical, the county can not only retain people, but also achieve them. "Xiang Yanzhen's words were full of excitement. As the head of Xiongxian Education High School, Wang Weiping still remembers vividly that in 2021, the newly taken over Xiongxian Third Senior High School was in a difficult situation. This school, built with the establishment of Xiong'an New Area and put into use in 2019, experienced a loss of students and consecutive resignations of teachers due to poor implementation of educational concepts and parents' doubts about the quality of the new school. The distrustful glances that were thrown around at that time pierced our hearts like needles. ”Wang Weiping recalled, "We realized that we must actively seek change and find a breakthrough path to improve teaching quality." The turning point came after the 2022 college entrance examination. After a series of efforts, the first batch of graduates from the school achieved good results, with an impressive undergraduate admission rate and multiple high scoring candidates, "said Wang Weiping." The trust that parents once lost in the school has been won back by tangible results. Thanks to the education reform that began at the beginning of this century, about 10 years ago, 11 counties (districts, cities) in Jinzhong City had already achieved the goal of having a high-quality demonstration high school in each county. ”When it comes to the development of local counties, He Lijie, a member of the Party Group and Deputy Director of the Education Bureau of Jinzhong City, Shanxi Province, is very confident. However, 20 years ago, the development of counties in Jinzhong also faced difficult choices: at that time, Jinzhong had a total of 67 ordinary high schools with scattered layouts and small scales, which not only caused resource waste but also restricted the improvement of teaching efficiency. Should we concentrate resources to build one or two "super high schools", or focus on running every high school at the doorstep of the people? Based on in-depth thinking and extensive discussions, we have firmly chosen the latter: we do not want to create a 'aircraft carrier' that monopolizes resources, nor do we want to scatter a weak and powerless' one small boat ', but to build a moderately sized' elite fleet '! ”Helijie said. To be honest, if you had asked the people of Jinzhong more than ten years ago why they let their children stay in the county to study in high school, they would have been able to talk to you for a long time, and they would have thought it was rare. ”He Lijie told reporters, "But now if you ask again, many parents will be stunned and think that there is nothing to answer - 'There are good schools right at home, isn't it natural for them to stay and study?' This change among ordinary people precisely shows that high-quality high school education is becoming natural in Jinzhong." The way to break through the situation is to "coordinate" and use a combination of punches. During the research, the reporter saw that "allowing more children to attend good county schools right at home" has become a common consensus in various regions. But in the practice of actively "self rescue" in various counties, why do some succeed in "warming up" while others have little effect? What is the key to the transition from 'wanting to revitalize' to 'truly revitalizing' in the county? During the interview, multiple interviewees repeatedly mentioned a key keyword: overall planning. The changes in Shimen No.1 Middle School in recent years are closely related to the 'parallel class division' mechanism that we have been implementing for many years. This is by no means a simple equal distribution, but a carefully considered and meticulously designed internal coordination practice. ”Tell the reporter to Yan Zhen. In the class division process, we implement 'precise coordination' between the source of students and the teaching staff to ensure that all new students stand on the same starting line. ”Introducing to Yan Zhen, "When new students enroll, we comprehensively use various methods such as cyclic grouping and cross numbering, and the class teacher ultimately draws lots to determine the class, ensuring that the students in each class have a balanced academic level, gender ratio, and student strengths in the initial stage. In terms of teacher allocation, we adhere to the scientific combination of 'old, middle-aged, and young' generations of teachers, and implement a selection and last place mobility mechanism for teachers in the second and third year of high school." "On the basis of overall balance, we also emphasize the hierarchical coordination of students. ”Xiang Yanzhen said, "We provide targeted assistance to students with special needs, comprehensively improve ordinary students, and focus on top students. Just like gardening, we should not only straighten out weak seedlings, but also let flowers bloom, so that each child can achieve maximum growth in their own 'recent development zone'." "We know that the revitalization of the county can not only rely on one or two star schools. We must play the card of 'overall planning' well, so that high-quality resources can flow among schools in the county. ”Wang Weiping stated. Under the overall planning of the County Education Bureau, we have improved the functions of the Xiong County High School Education Headquarters, and unified the management of teaching, research, and resource allocation in the three high schools in Xiong County. Through activities such as' big research, big moral education, and big evaluation ', we have broken down barriers between schools and achieved rapid sharing and promotion of high-quality experiences. ”Wang Weiping introduced. In 2021, in response to the high proportion of young teachers and relatively insufficient teaching experience at Xiong County Third Senior High School, we selected some key teachers from Xiong County First and Second High Schools through a coordinated allocation mechanism to provide cross school support. ”Wang Weiping said, "These teachers are evenly distributed through a combination of drawing lots and voluntary adjustment, forming a good hierarchical structure of 'old, middle, and young' with the original teacher team, effectively resolving the problem of insufficient teaching staff in weak schools and improving teaching quality." If Shimen No.1 Middle School and Xiongxian County have made beneficial attempts from the perspectives of intra school coordination and county-level coordination respectively, then in Jinzhong, Shanxi, this education reform has been pushed to a higher level of urban area. The establishment of the "fleet" in Jinzhong County began with resource coordination. Through the overall planning of the city, Jinzhong has integrated the originally scattered 67 high schools into 16 provincial and municipal demonstration high schools and 9 characteristic high schools. We have invested a total of 3.5 billion yuan to ensure that every county has a high-quality high school as its flagship, "said He Lijie. Hardware balance is just the starting point, the real breakthrough lies in the reform of the high school entrance examination enrollment system at the city level. ”He Lijie said, "There are two main policies. One is to gradually implement the 100% enrollment quota for high-quality high schools, and the other is to strictly limit cross county enrollment. 'The two wheels turn together', achieving a virtuous cycle in the education ecology of all counties in the city. The implementation of the quota enrollment policy was not achieved overnight, but gradually promoted over a whole decade. Starting from a pilot program of 5% in 2001, Jinzhong City finally achieved 100% full coverage by 2010. To ensure fairness, Jinzhong City has also set a threshold of "continuous enrollment for three years in schools within the junior high school area" to enjoy the policy of quota enrollment. This regulation is crucial and effectively curbs speculative school selection behavior, "said He Lijie. At the same time, since 2010, all ordinary high schools in the city, including municipal high schools, have strictly implemented non cross county enrollment. The implementation of these two policies has had a huge chain reaction: weak junior high schools have regained vitality, rural students have greatly increased opportunities to attend good high schools, and all counties have ushered in development opportunities, "said He Lijie. ”Based on long-term research and reflection on the problems in the county, Li Tie'an pointed out that "county revitalization is a systematic project that involves multiple factors such as faculty, management, teaching and research, and funding, in addition to the influence of student sources. These factors are interrelated and their impact often extends beyond the boundaries of the county. Without policy coordination and regional coordination at the city or broader level, it is easy to trigger a resource siphon effect and exacerbate the imbalance of education between regions. Only through cross level coordination and resource integration can structural contradictions be resolved and high-quality development of regional education be achieved." The "Action Plan for Revitalizing County level Ordinary High Schools" recently released by the Ministry of Education and six other departments clearly requires exploring the reform of the management system combining city and county. On the basis of county-level management in ordinary high schools, we encourage localities with conditions to increase the overall planning efforts of the city level in resource allocation, funding investment, education evaluation, and standardized education, focusing on filling gaps, bottom lines, and promoting fairness. This specific requirement has pointed out the direction for strengthening city wide coordination in the process of revitalizing counties in various regions. Top level design