Multi-school catchment areas: an effective tool for promoting gender diversity in schools. Lessons learnt from a pilot scheme carried out in Paris

To reduce social segregation between middle schools / lower secondary schools in the capital, the City of Paris and the Paris Education Authority have been trialling a new method of allocating pupils to state middle schools / lower secondary schools since the start of the 2017 school year: Multi-school catchment areas. This scheme involves defining catchment areas shared by several middle schools / lower secondary schools to rebalance their social mix. Two of the capital’s three dual-school catchment areas have achieved their social mix target. In the third catchment area, progress has been slower to materialise and remains modest. Looking beyond the Parisian context, multi-school catchment areas represent a promising approach to promoting social diversity in schools where the urban fabric is sufficiently diverse to allow for social mixing amongst pupils.