Purpose —Forty years ago, China made a critical decision to reform and open up, achieving sustained economic growth. Simultaneously, China continued to center efforts on achieving its education modernization goals. It succeeded in the unconventional development of education, consolidating a population of nearly 1.4 billion into a powerful human-resource-centered nation and creating favorable interactive relationships with social and economic development. This paper aims to explore how these achievements were gained and how these relationships were made. Design/Approach/Methods —This paper is conceptual in nature. Findings —Based on the policy documents and development practice, this paper proposes a model of Dual Priority Agenda (DPA), whereby the government prioritized education development, and this development focused predominantly on promoting national development. Originality/Value —By elaborating the background, characteristics, rationales, and mechanisms of the DPA, this paper contributes to a new conceptualization of reciprocal relationship between the state and educational modernization.

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Education quality has long been debated by education philosophers as what education is good (Burbules 2004). In the global practices, many countries have engaged in exploring how to make learners acquire good education. In the Education Policy Outlook 2015 published by OECD (2015), about 16% of education reform measures by the OECD member countries focused on education quality and equity.