For 6th and 5th grade students initially, the Minister of Education wishes to form level groups focused on mathematics and French. This organization can produce results, but under certain conditions.
Raise the general level, separating middle school students according to their level. This is the ambition expressed by Gabriel Attal, who presented on Tuesday December 5 his measures for a “clash of knowledge”. A decision justified, in part, by France’s average results in the Pisa evaluation (International program ofOECD for monitoring student achievement). In each middle school, 6th and 5th grade students will be divided into three groups, depending on their level in mathematics and French, from the start of the school year in September 2024. This organization must extend to 4th and 3rd grade classes at the start of the 2025 school year. The Minister of Education assures that “vs“is a very important step forward for equal opportunities.” However, education researchers agree that homogeneity in the classroom does not have positive effects for students in difficulty, except in a very specific context. Explanations.
“Permanent groupings such as level classes are ineffective”attests a note (PDF) of 2023 of the IDEE program (Innovations, data and experiments in education). In addition to feeling stigmatized, students in the lowest performing group are often less stimulated by their teachers than if they were mixed with the others. “There is a somewhat perverse chameleon effect: the teacher ends up lowering his expectations of weak students, addressing them in relation to their level as it is”notes Patrick Rayou, professor of educational sciences at Paris 8 University.
A fortiori, certain studies agree that such groups especially help the most resourceful students to raise their level, which accentuates inequalities. pre-existing. An article by sociologists Marie Duru-Bellat and Alain Mingat, published in 1997 in the French journal of sociologyalready emphasized that “grouping by level [étai]t significantly harmful to the progress of weak students, but favorable to that of strong students, with reference to a heterogeneous class context”. Other research is a little more pessimistic about the benefits that so-called “strong” students can derive from it. This is explained by a study produced by Béatrice Boutchenik and Sophie Maillard in 2019, which calls into question “exposure to competition” between these students.
Lack of resources and consideration of needs
Under certain conditions, however, level groups can prove effective. According to the latest Pisa report from the OECD, “a positive relationship between the performance obtained in mathematics (discipline on which the report focused in 2022) and the grouping of students is observed if the grouping is limited to a few subjects, while the relationship is negative if it is implemented for all subjects. Jean-Paul Delahaye, former director general of school education, adds that “research from the Scientific Council of National Education highlights that groups must be punctual”. An observation shared by the IDEE note.
“If the groups are fixed, the gaps will not narrow, but on the contrary widen between the students.”
Jean-Paul Delahaye, former director general of school educationat franceinfo
In theory, these two conditions will be met, assured Gabriel Attal. This differentiation between students will only be done for “fundamental knowledge”. And “they will be able to change groups if they progress”, he promised. However, the question of feasibility arises. “We need resources, but we are in a context of decreasing numbers,” alerts the general secretary of SGEN-CFDT Caroline Brisedoux. If the Minister of National Education promised on franceinfo that teachers would be recruited in French and mathematics, without giving precise figures, the executive’s 2024 budget bill provides for the elimination of 2,500 positions.
“Very concretely, I put myself in the place of a principal. Three groups, that means three rooms: where will they find these premises? The teachers also need to be able to coordinate among themselves, is a consultation time will be planned in their schedule? asks Jean-Paul Delahaye.
A final point necessary for the success of these groups, in particular for “weak” students, has not yet been clarified by the minister. Will they focus on French and maths overall, or on specific points of the program? Rather than level groups, some of the research touts “need groups.” “If part of the class has difficulty with the Pythagorean theorem, we can temporarily isolate these students until they are up to standard”illustrates Patrick Rayou, aware however of the lack of teachers.
See beyond just academic results
From the point of view of specialists, the use of level groups remains symptomatic of educational failures. “This shows that we do not know how to manage the heterogeneity of students in class”judge Patrick Rayou, for whom teachers are today trained to “repair the damage, but not to anticipate them”. Jean-Paul Delahaye also notes that “for around thirty years, we have lowered our guard on the continuing and initial training of teachers”, particularly in the first degree. He recalls that, according to the Directorate of Evaluation, Foresight and Performance (DEPP), “classroom numbers are the busiest in Europe”which does not provide students with good learning conditions.
For Patrick Rayou, Gabriel Attal’s measures are ultimately “more political than scientific” and endorse the principle of non-mixing. “It already exists organizationally, at the institutional level, between suburban colleges and those in the city center”, recalls the researcher. The Pisa 2022 study also shows that the attractiveness of the private sector continues to grow in France. “The proportion of students enrolled in these establishments (…) increased by 5.2 percentage points” compared to 2018. Thus, “they obtained mathematics results 27 points higher than those of students educated in public establishments”.
A 2023 note from the Scientific Council of National Education underlines that experiments in social diversity, as they are carried out in France, are more positive than negative. Students, whatever their background, certainly do not have “have not seen their academic results evolve significantly” but they feel more fulfilled at school. “There are considerable benefits for self-esteem. Disadvantaged students also broaden their network and have more knowledge about their educational prospects,” greets Jean-Paul Delahaye, for whom academic results are not the only indicator of a healthy school.