文革結束之後，中國全力發展農村基礎教育，2000 年達到全國基本普及九年義務教育的目標。但是，農村教育發展的問題卻是層出不窮，而今城鄉學校教育的懸殊差距成為學界關注和探討的焦點。本論文以制度變遷理論為基礎，分析1950 年代後期至2000 年之間，主導中國中小學教育發展的兩條腿走路發展政策的變遷，由之找尋出中國城鄉教育二元化發展的起源、挑戰與變遷。

Over the past three decades, China has spared no efforts to fulfill the
nine-year mandatory education in rural areas. But along with the impressive
statistic, reports have shown various kinds of problems. The glaring gap
between rural schools and city schools has caused great concern and criticism. This paper adopts historical institutionism along with two-year field studies to analyze the origin, formation, and changes of China’s urban-rural dualistic education system over the past half century.