Constructing the Content System and Scientific Methods of the Ideological and Political Leading Force Index

In 2024, General Secretary Xi Jinping explicitly proposed the iconic concept of "ideological and political leading force" at the National Education Conference, and designated it as a distinctive feature of a socialist education powerhouse with Chinese characteristics. How to scientifically and effectively evaluate the development level of the ideological and political leading force has become an important and urgent issue. An index is a relative number used to measure the degree of change of a variable over different times or spaces, and can effectively monitor the development status of a matter. In the process of building an education powerhouse with a strong ideological and political leading force, an ideological and political leading force index can be constructed to conduct status evaluation, cause analysis, and path optimization for the ideological and political leading force of various regions and schools.

2024年，习近平总书记在全国教育大会上明确提出“思政引领力”这一标识性概念，并将其作为中国特色社会主义教育强国的鲜明特征。如何科学有效地评价思政引领力的发展水平，成为一个重要而迫切的问题。指数，是用于测定一个变量在不同时间或不同空间上变化程度的相对数，可以有效地监测事物的发展状况。在建设具有强大思政引领力的教育强国进程中，可以构建思政引领力指数，对各地区、各学校的思政引领力进行现状评价、原因分析和路径优化。

I

一

The ideological and political leading force index or indicator system has its inherent stipulations. The internationally通用的 "input-process-output" education indicator model can be referenced to construct the content system of the ideological and political leading force index, including the object system, the link system, and the element system.

思政引领力指数或指标体系有其内在规定性，可参考国际通用的“投入—过程—产出”教育指标模式，构建思政引领力指数内容体系，包括对象体系、环节体系和要素体系等。

Object system. The objects of ideological and political leading force evaluation are mainly oriented towards regions and schools, and the ideological and political leading force index should also include regional indices and school indices. Taking the school index as an example, the objects of the ideological and political leading force index mainly include managers (management services), educators (teacher teaching and research), and educatees (student learning), etc. Among them, management services involve educational concepts, strategic planning, organizational structures, rules and regulations, etc.; educators include ideological and political theory course teachers, general education or specialized course teachers, postgraduate supervisors, counselors, etc.; and educatees run through all stages of primary, secondary, and higher education.

对象体系。思政引领力评价的对象主要面向地区和学校，思政引领力指数也应包含地区指数、学校指数。以学校指数为例，思政引领力指数的对象主要包括管理者（管理服务）、教育者（教师教研）、受教育者（学生学习）等。其中，管理服务涉及教育理念、战略规划、组织机构、规章制度等，教育者包括思政课教师、通识课或专业课教师、研究生导师、辅导员等，受教育者则贯通大中小学各学段。

Link system. The ideological and political leading force is a systematic synergy formed in many links such as ideological and moral education, cultural knowledge education, and social practice education. Ideological and political theory courses, curriculum-based ideological and political education, and daily ideological and political work are important components of the ideological and political education system and are the main links for evaluating the ideological and political leading force. In addition, there are the construction of "grand ideological and political courses" [1]1 "Grand ideological and political courses" (大思政课) refers to an expanded concept of ideological and political education that integrates classroom teaching with social practice, online resources, and real-world experiences, moving beyond traditional classroom settings., the integrated construction of ideological and political education in universities, middle schools, and primary schools, the construction of the teacher team, and the collaborative cooperation between families, schools, and society, all of which are important ways to enhance the ideological and political leading force. Therefore, the construction of the ideological and political leading force index should integrate the evaluation of ideological and political theory courses, the curriculum-based ideological and political education index, the standards for daily ideological and political work, and the evaluation systems of other links.

环节体系。思政引领力是在思想道德教育、文化知识教育、社会实践教育等诸多环节中形成的系统合力。思政课程、课程思政、日常思想政治工作是思想政治教育体系的重要组成部分，是思政引领力评价的主要环节。此外，还有“大思政课”建设、大中小学思想政治教育一体化建设、教师队伍建设、家校社协同合作等，都是提升思政引领力的重要途径。因此，思政引领力指数构建应整合思政课评估、课程思政指数、日常思想政治工作标准以及其他环节的评价体系。

Element system. Generally speaking, ideological leadership, political leadership, cultural leadership, value leadership, belief leadership, moral leadership, emotional leadership, and action leadership together form a leading synergy, namely the ideological and political leading force. The ideological and political leading force index should observe and evaluate the above elements, reflecting the actual situation and effects of the ideological and political leading force in an all-round and multi-dimensional manner.

要素体系。一般而言，思想引领、政治引领、文化引领、价值引领、信仰引领、道德引领、情感引领、行动引领等共同形成引领合力，即思政引领力。思政引领力指数应对以上要素进行观测评估，全方位、多维度地反映思政引领力的实际状况和效果。

II

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Once the concept of "ideological and political leading force" was proposed, the academic community quickly launched a wave of theoretical research, demonstrating the scientific connotation of the ideological and political leading force, summarizing its constituent elements, analyzing its generation mechanism, exploring its practical paths, and forming research results on the basic issues of the theory and practice of the ideological and political leading force. To construct the ideological and political leading force index, it is necessary to absorb relevant research results on the ideological and political leading force, base it on relevant policy documents for the evaluation of ideological and political education in China, and draw on the general principles and methods of index construction.

“思政引领力”概念一经提出，学界就迅速展开理论研究热潮，论证了思政引领力的科学内涵，归纳了思政引领力的构成要素，分析了思政引领力的生成机理，探讨了思政引领力的实践路径，形成了关于思政引领力理论与实践基本问题的研究成果。构建思政引领力指数，要吸收思政引领力相关研究成果，依据我国思想政治教育评价相关政策文件，并借鉴指数构建的一般原则与方法。

First, the practice of ideological and political education is essentially an educational practice of arming the mind with Marxist theory. To construct the ideological and political leading force index, we should firmly adhere to the directional leadership, development driving force, and talent cultivation force of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era for building an education powerhouse, consciously follow the evaluation thoughts on moral education of classical Marxist writers, firmly grasp the nature and positioning of building an education powerhouse, and deeply understand the scientific connotation of the ideological and political leading force.

首先，思想政治教育实践本质上是用马克思主义理论武装头脑的教育实践。构建思政引领力指数，应牢牢坚持习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想对建设教育强国的方向引领力、发展驱动力、人才培育力，自觉遵循马克思主义经典作家的德育评估思想，牢牢把握教育强国建设的性质定位，深入认识思政引领力的科学内涵。

Second, China's evaluation of ideological and political education has accumulated rich practical achievements, such as the construction standards for ideological and political theory courses in institutions of higher learning, the evaluation system for college students' ideological and political education work, and the basic standards for Party building and ideological and political work in institutions of higher learning. To construct the ideological and political leading force index, policy elements can be extracted from the macro policies, practical activities, and special tasks of ideological and political education evaluation, and promoted in coordination with existing evaluation work.

其次，我国思想政治教育评价积累了丰富的实践成果，如高等学校思想政治理论课建设标准、大学生思想政治教育工作测评体系、高等学校党建和思想政治工作基本标准等。构建思政引领力指数可从思想政治教育评价的宏观政策、实践活动和专项工作中提取政策要素，并与现行的评价工作统筹推进。

Finally, in the evaluation of the ideological and political leading force, adhere to the unity of political evaluation and professional evaluation, the unity of value evaluation and factual evaluation; adhere to the unity of process evaluation and outcome evaluation, the unity of work evaluation and effectiveness evaluation; adhere to the unity of objective evaluation and subjective evaluation, the unity of quantitative evaluation and qualitative evaluation. In view of regional differences and school types, we must also adhere to the unity of comprehensive evaluation and classified evaluation, graded evaluation, while considering value-added evaluation that accounts for the characteristics of different regions and schools.

最后，在思政引领力评价方面，坚持政治评价与业务评价相统一、价值评价与事实评价相统一；坚持过程评价与结果评价相统一、工作评价与成效评价相统一；坚持客观评价与主观评价相统一、定量评价与定性评价相统一。鉴于地区差异、学校类型，还要坚持综合评价与分类评价、分级评价相统一，同时考虑不同地区、不同学校特点的增值评价。

III

三

New-generation digital technologies represented by big data, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence are comprehensively promoting change and innovation in various fields including education. General Secretary Xi Jinping attaches great importance to education digitalization, emphasizing that "education digitalization is an important breakthrough for China to open up new tracks for education development and shape new advantages for education development." To construct the ideological and political leading force index, we should take evaluation as the driving force, the indicator system as the foothold, and digitalization as the power source.

以大数据、云计算、人工智能等为代表的新一代数字技术正在全方位促进包括教育在内的各个领域的变革与创新。习近平总书记高度重视教育数字化，强调“教育数字化是我国开辟教育发展新赛道和塑造教育发展新优势的重要突破口”。构建思政引领力指数，要以评价为牵引力，以指标体系为落脚点，以数字化为动力源。

Innovatively design the scale formation of the ideological and political leading force index. For a long time, theoretical research and practical work have pointed out the contradiction between the complexity of evaluation indicator parameters for ideological and political education and the convenience of practical operation. Therefore, constructing the ideological and political leading force index should balance the combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. It is necessary to introduce relatively mature scales while maintaining vigilance against "everything can be quantified." Through preliminary construction, expert scoring, pre-evaluation, algorithm analysis, etc., a scale with strong persuasiveness and operability is formed. This requires that each indicator possesses characteristics such as authority, collectability, and computability, and also consider the generation cycle, collection cycle, and evaluation cycle of each indicator's data. In addition, through repeated verification and multiple iterations, the scientificity and effectiveness of the ideological and political leading force index should be continuously improved.

创新设计思政引领力指数的量表形成。长期以来，理论研究与实践工作纷纷指出思想政治教育评价指标参数庞杂性与实际操作便捷性之间存在矛盾。因此，构建思政引领力指数应兼顾定量与定性相结合的方法，既要引入相对成熟的量表，又要保持对“一切皆可量化”的警惕。通过初步构建、专家打分、预评估、算法分析等，形成说服力强、操作性强的量表。这就要求各指标兼具权威性、可采集性、可计算性等特征，还要考虑各指标数据的生成周期、采集周期和评价周期。此外，要通过反复验证和多次迭代，不断提高思政引领力指数的科学性和有效性。

Innovatively design the weight distribution of the ideological and political leading force index. For example, using the analytic hierarchy process and the comprehensive index method, dimensionless processing and comprehensive index calculation are performed on each indicator and each item to obtain the weight distribution, further improving the scientificity, accuracy, and credibility of the scale. As another example, invite experts in relevant fields to propose suggestions for adding, deleting, or modifying the content system and specific measurement items of the initially constructed ideological and political leading force index, and make gradual revisions.

创新设计思政引领力指数的权重分配。例如，采用层次分析法和综合指数法，对各指标、各题项进行无量纲化处理、综合指数测算等，从而得出权重分配，进一步提高量表的科学性、精确性和可信度。再如，邀请相关领域专家对初步构建的思政引领力指数的内容体系和具体的测量题项提出增加、删除、修改等建议，进行逐步修订。

Innovatively design the data representation of the ideological and political leading force index. The data representation forms of each indicator and item of the ideological and political leading force index can include multiple forms, for example, administrative data such as policy documents and statistical data; digital imprints such as online course platform interactions, Rain Classroom bullet comments [2]2 Rain Classroom (雨课堂) is a digital teaching tool developed by Tsinghua University that integrates PowerPoint with real-time interaction features such as bullet comments, quizzes, and feedback, commonly used in Chinese higher education., and social media big data; and survey data reflecting the thoughts, attitudes, and emotions of teachers and students. Based on different data representation forms, different data collection methods should be adopted. In recent years, people have increasingly paid attention to issues such as big data evaluation of ideological and political education, digital transformation, and intelligent technology empowering the evaluation of ideological and political education. This also prompts us to explore data-driven methods for constructing the ideological and political leading force index. For example, to minimize data contamination as much as possible, non-intrusive data collection based on speech recognition, image recognition, and emotion recognition can be adopted.

创新设计思政引领力指数的数据表征。思政引领力指数各指标、各题项的数据表征形式可以包括多种形态，例如，政策文件、统计数据等行政数据，网络学堂互动、雨课堂弹幕、社交媒体大数据等数字印纹，以及反映师生思想、态度、情绪的调查数据等。基于不同的数据表征形式，要采用不同的数据采集方法。近年来，人们越来越关注思想政治教育大数据评价、数字化变革以及智能技术赋能思想政治教育评价等问题，这也提示我们探索数字驱动的思政引领力指数构建方法。例如，为了尽可能减少数据污染，可以采用基于语音识别、图像识别、情绪识别的无感式数据采集。

Innovatively design the practical application of the ideological and political leading force index. The application process of an index generally consists of three stages: "evaluation-analysis-optimization." In the status evaluation stage, the final measurement scale should be organized into a structured assessment questionnaire, data collection should be carried out, the ideological and political leading force indices of various regions and schools should be calculated, and a quantifiable and visualizable depiction of the ideological and political leading force of regions and schools should be drawn. In the cause analysis stage, quantitative research methods such as multi-level linear regression should be used to deeply analyze the influencing factors of the ideological and political leading force and the interaction relationships between various elements. In the path optimization stage, based on the specific results of the evaluation measurement and influencing factor analysis of the ideological and political leading force index, targeted optimization suggestions should be proposed and optimization plans formulated. At the same time, the ideological and political leading force index is not static; it should be continuously iterated and updated based on the actual level of effectiveness of the ideological and political leading force in various regions and schools.

创新设计思政引领力指数的实践应用。指数的应用流程一般由“评价—分析—优化”三个阶段构成。在现状评价阶段，要将最终确定的测量量表整理为结构化测评问卷，开展数据采集，计算各地区、各学校的思政引领力指数，对地区与学校思政引领力进行可量化、可视化的图景描绘。在原因分析阶段，采用多层线性回归等量化研究方法，深入分析思政引领力的影响因素，以及各要素之间的作用关系。在路径优化阶段，基于思政引领力指数的评价测量和影响因素分析的具体结果，有针对性地提出优化建议、制定优化方案。与此同时，思政引领力指数也不是一成不变的，要根据各地区、各学校思政引领力发挥效能的实际水平不断迭代更新。

In summary, constructing the ideological and political leading force index is key to evaluating ideological and political leading force, and it concerns the enhancement of ideological and political leading force as well as the building of a strong socialist education country with Chinese characteristics. Applying the ideological and political leading force index to the "Double First-Class" initiative [3]3 The "Double First-Class" initiative (双一流) is a Chinese government project launched in 2017 to develop a group of world-class universities and first-class disciplines., disciplinary evaluations, and educational supervision helps promote the integrity and innovation of ideological and political courses, the quality improvement of curriculum-based ideological and political education, and the connotative development of daily ideological and political work. It also helps build a sound educational ecosystem, guiding and cultivating new generations capable of shouldering the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation through ideological and political education.

总之，构建思政引领力指数是开展思政引领力评价的关键，事关思政引领力的提升，事关中国特色社会主义教育强国建设。将思政引领力指数应用于“双一流”建设、学科评估、教育督导等，有助于推动思政课守正创新、课程思政质量提升和日常思想政治工作内涵式发展，有助于构建良好的育人生态，通过思想政治教育来引导培养担当民族复兴大任的时代新人。

(The author is Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of the School of Marxism at Tsinghua University)

（作者系清华大学马克思主义学院党委副书记）

Online Editor: Chu Yang

网络编辑：初阳