The senior high schools in China are considered to have an exam-oriented curriculum and a strong competitive environment, turning the life of students into a nightmare. This type of education has been criticized for a long time and instead, “quality education,” which is the opposite of knowledge-oriented and exam-oriented education, has been recommended since the 1990s. This study focuses on “quality education” as the key for educational reforms in China, and reviews and analyzes the policy trends, and the effect of quality education on high school education and college entrance exam reform. Our investigation resulted in the following findings. First, an analysis of the education policy revealed that “quality education,” a term which was relatively vague and was understood as the opposite of exam-oriented education, could be used as criteria for reform by clarifying each ability as “core background.” This clarification makes it possible to provide concrete guidelines for high school education. Second, it was found that, reflecting on “quality education,” high school education has newly established a subject called “comprehensive practical activity” that fosters students’ independent thoughts and creative activities. It also gave schools more discretionary power and teachers more freedom to teach in class. Lastly, regarding college entrance exams, it can be pointed out that, in addition to the conventional written exams, there is a shift toward evaluating not only the test scores but also other aspects such as student records. However, we also found that the movement has not reached all the schools because of its hasty implementation and a large number of examinees.