Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to review the achievements of Chinese educational management in the past 30 years, conclude the characteristics of Chinese educational management and indicate the problems of Chinese educational management and the countermeasures. Design/methodology/approach: This paper reviews the research of educational management in China in the past 30 years from four aspects: research purpose, research methods, research contents and disciplinary system. Findings: The paper sums up the main achievements, the main characteristics and the main problems of Chinese educational management in the past 30 years. It suggests that the disciplinary relationship should be further clarified; the role of disciplinary research accomplishments has to be further developed and the specialization level in disciplinary research needs to be further improved. Practical implications: This paper indicates the direction for the construction of Chinese educational management in the future: to further clarify the relationship among related disciplines; to put the role of the research results into full play; to further improve the specialization level of disciplinary research. Originality/value: This paper contributes to the construction of Chinese educational management both theoretically and practically.