The Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee stated “Deepening Educational Reform”. In this context，the 21st Century Education Research Institute organized the 4th Local Education Governance Innovation Award. For this year’s award candidates，“simplifying administration and decentralizing” emerged as a main theme. Three key goals had become focal points for reforming local education：clarifying the relationships between central and local governments，specifying the distribution of management roles among governments，schools and society，and advocating educators enjoying school-running power.