Academic level in 6th grade: social origin always makes a difference

Assessments that serve as an educational compass

Published in early October by Le Journal des Femmes, the mapping of the academic level of 6th grade middle school students is based on the results of the 2024 national assessments in French and mathematics.

Accessible online, it allows each parent to view student performance by department: a concrete way to understand where the level gaps are when entering university.

These assessments, mandatory and held every fall since 2018, measure several key skills: reading, reading comprehension, vocabulary mastery, geometry, calculations and even problem solving.

The results, anonymized, serve as a basis for teachers to adapt their pedagogy. At the national level, they also provide a valuable barometer of children’s academic performance at age 11.

Contrasting results depending on the materials

Since 2017, results in French have been increasing overall: the percentage of students in the lowest performing groups has decreased, from 31.7% to 26.9%.

But if we compare 2024 with 2018 instead of 2017, the average score in French drops slightly by 2 points, from 250 to 248.

This nuance reminds us that progress is not linear and that the years 2020 and 2021, marked by the pandemic, have clouded the trends.

In mathematics the picture is a little more encouraging. The average score increased compared to 2017, with the improvement particularly visible among the best performing students, whose percentage increased by almost 4 points.

Between 2018 and 2024 the score went from 249 to 254, a gain of 5 points. But this increase hides a polarization: the gaps between students in difficulty (from 30.8% to 32.2%) and the best are widening, creating a gap that continues to widen.

Priority education is progressing, but remains fragile

Students trained in a strengthened priority education network made particular progress in French: in the REP+, the share of students in great difficulty fell from 60.7% to 52.7% between 2017 and 2024, a drop of 8 points.

This is rather reassuring news for parents of children attending these institutions, who benefit in particular from the division of CP and CE1 classes.

However, in mathematics, REP+ colleges still have an average score of 220 points in 2024, compared to 255 for public (excluding priority education) and 270 for private.

The gap remains considerable, even if it is slowly decreasing. For parents this means that support and support at home remains essential, especially in more disadvantaged areas.

The private sector is overrepresented: selection effect, no excellence

Scrolling through the map, one observation stands out: private colleges, often Catholic, monopolize the top places. But beware of hasty interpretations. This phenomenon is explained above all by a “cream” effect. : private institutions select their students from the archive, mechanically concentrating the most successful profiles.

These rankings therefore better measure the entry level of students compared to the real added educational value of the institute. A public middle school in a working-class neighborhood that makes significant progress for struggling students will never appear at the top of the league table, even if its work is impressive. Year 6 assessments capture a moment in time, not the path traveled.

Social origin, the true determinant

The data from the Ministry of National Education speak clearly: between 2018 and 2024, the gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students has widened. In French, the former reach 279 points in 2024, the latter stagnate at 233. In mathematics, the gap has increased from 42 to 48 points since 2017.

However, families who attend private school are statistically more advantaged: they have the means to pay school fees and have a better understanding of the codes of the education system. What these rankings reveal is therefore very important social composition establishments with respect to their intrinsic performance.

School avoidance exacerbates inequalities

The phenomenon of avoidance of sector-specific universities creates a vicious circle. Better-informed families flee struggling private-sector establishments, thus depriving the public of the social diversity that could benefit everyone. Result: some public universities concentrate the difficulties, while others combine the advantages.

In REP+ (Enhanced Priority Education Network), the average mathematics score reaches 220 points in 2024, compared to 255 in the public sector excluding priority education and 270 in the private sector. A 50 point gap illustrating the school segregation at work.

Beyond priority education systems, the question of social diversity arises. As long as the most advantaged families manage to get around the school map, disadvantaged institutions will remain educational ghettos. Reducing inequalities will not be possible by increasing the hours of support in REP+, but by creating real diversity in all French colleges.

Will the school of the Republic be able to keep the promise of equality? The answer will not come only from teachers, but from a strong political will to break the logic of segregation that undermines our education system.

Source: Madmoizelle