At a time when the Ministry of National Education is considering the measures that could be taken to promote the social and academic mix in middle schools / lower secondary schools and upper secondary schools, the reform of the Affelnet-lycée procedure in Paris offers a concrete example of how this objective can be implemented on a large scale. At the start of the 2021 academic year, this automated procedure for allocating pupils to state sixth-form colleges underwent a major overhaul in an attempt to rebalance the social composition and average academic level of pupils admitted to sixth-form colleges in the capital. To achieve this objective whilst ensuring that pupils can be allocated to a school located within a reasonable distance of their home, a new catchment area system for secondary schools was introduced and the scoring system determining pupils’ priorities was amended to take into account the social position index (IPS) of their former middle school / lower secondary school. The analyses presented in this paper show that, within the space of two years, the Affelnet reform has reduced social and educational segregation between the capital’s state general and technical upper secondary schools by 30 to 40 per cent. However, these developments face several structural obstacles that are hindering progress towards greater diversity in Parisian secondary schools, starting with the fact that private schools under contract are not included in the Affelnet system.
The Affelnet-lycée reform in Paris: a sharp rise in the social and academic mix in state sixth-form colleges
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident; sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
Reference IPP Policy Brief No. 88
Presentation
Key Results
- To promote a social and academic mix in the capital’s state sixth-form colleges, the Paris Education Authority introduced a new school catchment area system at the start of the 2021 academic year and incorporated a new allocation bonus into the Affelnet procedure, which takes into account the social position index (IPS) of pupils’ former middle schools / lower secondary schools.
- Within two years, the reform has led to a 39 per cent reduction in social segregation between public general and technical sixth-form colleges, and a 30 per cent reduction in their academic segregation compared with the levels observed in 2019.
- In the short term, the reform has not led to a ‘flight’ to the private sector: there has been no significant deterioration in the social composition or average academic performance of pupils at state sixth-form colleges compared with those at private ones.
- However, several obstacles limit Affelnet’s ability to fully achieve the objectives set for it: the insufficiently mixed nature of the catchment areas for certain secondary schools, the special status of certain courses and, above all, the fact that state-funded private secondary schools are not included in the process.
Partners
This paper was supported by the Ministry of National Education and Youth. The authors would like to thank the teams at the Paris Regional Education Authority and the DEPP for providing the data used.
The analyses presented in this paper are the sole responsibility of the authors and cannot be attributed to either the Paris Academy or the Ministry of National Education and Youth.