In the process of rapid urbanization，the rural areas were carrying out the tough battle of poverty alleviation in education，which aimed for integrated developments of urban and rural compulsory education at the county level. At the same time，as the Ministry of Education introduced the concept of “Core Literacy” and reforms in the high school entrance exam to promote “quality-oriented education”，students still suffered from a system that is highly exam-oriented. It was an era in which we saw the educational gap between urban and rural areas，the tensions between educational equity and quality，and the entanglement between exam-oriented education and education innovations. The contrast between education visions and realities highlighted the challenges of educational reform in a system of diverse stakeholders and interests. The challenges also called for further modernization of educational governance.