Assessment innovation and reform in France

ABSTRACT

The last two decades have seen fast-moving and wholescale changes in the ways that education is now provided in French schools, in the nature of learner assessment, and in the form and scale of system evaluation. Innovation and reform have in part followed international trends, themselves triggered by the global impact of the international attainment surveys, and are in part a response to growing economic pressures, EU initiatives and increasingly burdensome examination logistics. One of the most recent reforms, and arguably the most dramatic, concerns the iconic ‘academic’ baccalauréat, which sees a reduced subject profile for formal examination and the new addition of teacher assessment to complement examination achievements. The most ambitious innovations are arguably those introduced into the newest form of accountability-focused system monitoring. The article overviews these innovations and reforms, along with the motivations that led up to them, and briefly reflects on potential future consequences, both expected and unintended.

KEYWORDS:

• French education policy 
• national qualifications
• system monitoring
• assessment innovation
• assessment reform
• international trends

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Known now as Collectivités d’Outre-mer (COM), these vary in geographical size, population size, distance from metropolitan France, culture, and political status (which can evolve): for the current situation consult http://www.outre-mer.gouv.fr/les-outre-mer.

2. Pre-2013, primary schooling was based on a 4-day or 4½-day week, depending on the local authority. Standardisation was to be to a 4½-day week. However, in 2018, in light of continuing protest on the part of teachers in some cases and parents in others, primary schools were again allowed to decide their own timetables, and 80% chose a 4-day week. A consequence is that the majority of primary-age children in France spend fewer, but longer, days in school than their peers in any other OECD country.

3. There are currently over 90 departments in mainland France and Corsica, with departments grouped into regions for some administrative purposes. Consolidation and restructuring is an ongoing process.

4. There are currently 30 local education authorities, 26 in mainland France and 4 overseas, organised into 17 academic regions, comprising between one and several authorities. For further information consult http://www.education.gouv.fr/cid3/les-regions-academiques-academies-et-services-departementaux-de-l-education-nationale.html.

5. The Grandes Ecoles are a unique historic feature of France’s higher education system. They are prestigious, highly selective, institutions that offer demanding educational programmes in particular professional domains, including politics, engineering, and social sciences. Students are drawn predominately from among the highest achieving holders of the baccalauréat général, who also achieve success in competitive admissions examinations for which they will have studied for at least two further years in a lycée post-bac.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jean-Pierre Jeantheau

Jean-Pierre Jeantheau holds the post of Chargé de mission national in France’s National Literacy Agency (Agence nationale de lutte contre l’illettrisme, ANLCI). He has managed numerous adult literacy surveys for the Agency, including the IVQ. He also develops face-to-face and online assessment tools for use with adults with poor literacy skills, including for use by the military services. Invited regularly by UNESCO to participate in literacy expert groups, he has also collaborated over many years with colleagues in the statistics department of the Lumière Institute in the Université Lyon 2. Prior to joining the ANLCI, he worked in DEPP, the Assessment, Forecasting and Performance Directorate of the French Education Ministry in Paris, in particular serving as National Project Manager for PISA 2000.

Sandra Johnson

Sandra Johnson is an assessment consultant, with extensive experience in teaching, research and assessment practice. She was Deputy Technical Director of England’s Assessment of Performance Unit (APU) science monitoring programme in the 1980s, and for almost 20 years served as Technical Adviser to the Scottish Government, supporting successive national assessment programmes.  She served on advisory committees on assessment, in the UK and in Switzerland, and collaborated as assessment expert in several international aid projects. She is a Fellow of the Association for Educational Assessment – Europe, and an Honorary Member of the European Educational Research Association’s Network 9 (Assessment, Evaluation, Testing and Measurement). She is a member of the editorial boards of Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy and Practice and Educational and Psychological Measurement.