Are level groups factors of success?

When he was Minister of National Education, then during his general policy speech as Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal announced the establishment of level groups in middle school in French and mathematics. These three level groups per class aim to raise the level of students, after France’s low results in the Pisa assessment. This idea was already tested by Alain Savary, Minister of National Education, in 1983.

Studies with divergent conclusions

Can these groups contribute to academic success? A study, carried out in 2023 by a research laboratory based at the Paris School of Economics, concludes that “neither the best performing students nor the least performing students benefit from the establishment of level groups”. This would reinforce the stigmatization of the weakest students, according to one of the authors of the study. The Pisa report for 2022 predicts a positive impact of these level groups, particularly for mathematics.