Excellent ecosystem quality is fundamental for sustainable development of regions or nations, which is also one of the most important goals for the construction of ecological civilization in China. Currently, we have made progress in establishing methods for evaluating ecosystem quality. However, owing to the lack of scientific evaluation standards and a unified system of selected indicator, these evaluated results in different periods could be compared only for specific region and could not be compared among different regions. In addition, it is difficult to conduct integrated research or to quickly assess ecosystem quality at regional and national scales. Therefore, to effectively overcome these challenges, it is necessary to rethink and establish a new evaluation system which can help the rapid evaluation of ecosystem quality with the advantages of being scientific, economic, and feasible. Based on the current status of ecosystem quality assessment, we proposed that a new concept of ideal reference should be incorporated into the evaluation systems, aiming to further improve the frame of evaluation system. Meanwhile, we have developed a method of determining the threshold in the ideal frame of reference in detail. Furthermore, to strike a balance between being scientific, fast, economically feasible, and perceivable, we recommended the selection of some key ecological parameters used in the new evaluation framework, such as primary productivity, soil organic matter, plant diversity, and landscape fragmentation. The new framework for measuring ecosystem quality incorporating "ideal reference and key parameters" can meet the requirements of rapid evaluation for ecosystem quality well both at regional and national scales. Therefore, the results of their evaluation can provide better guidelines for rational distribution of resources, and enhance the protection effect, because the new frame can help identify the restoration potential and restoration effects.