It was, says a teacher from the Ile-de-France region, a “stressful moment” for students who had barely left primary school. Like every year since 2017, at the initiative of former minister Jean-Michel Blanquer, middle school students entering sixth grade in his establishment took a series of tests in September. On the program, French – written comprehension, spelling, reading – and maths – calculation, geometry… The exercises, identical for everyone, were offered to more than 800,000 middle school students across the country.
These evaluations, of which Le Parisien-Aujourd’hui en France gives the results, must make it possible to establish a “photograph”, both national and local, of the skills and knowledge of students, and guide National Education in the measures to take.
In the Créteil academy, a good result in reading
In Île-de-France, “photography” shows, this year as in previous years, clear differences between the academies. The Paris academy is at the top of the national ranking with an average score in French of 281.9 points, well above the national average (256.7), and a score of 278 points in maths (compared to 254 points in National level). The Créteil academy (Seine-Saint-Denis, Val-de-Marne, Seine-et-Marne) displays scores below the national average (254 points in French, 246 in maths) while that of Versailles (Yvelines, Essonne , Hauts-de-Seine and Val-d’Oise) rises above (264 points in French, 259 points in maths).
Like the trend observed across the country, results are improving everywhere in Île-de-France. Between 2017 and 2023, Créteil follows the national curve: + 5 points in French, + 4 in math. The academy even manages to post a result above the national average in “fluency” – a measure of students’ ease in reading a text aloud. Within the Versailles academy, the increase is even clearer (+ 6 points in French, + 4.5 in math), while Paris jumps by 10 points in French and 13 in math.
Tests “disconnected from reality”, according to a teacher
But these overall, aggregated scores do not make it possible to measure the disparities that exist between schools. But these do exist, underlines Antoine Tardy, co-secretary general of the Snes-FSU union of the Versailles academy. While these national assessments are also supposed to allow teachers to gauge the level of classes and identify difficulties, he expresses his skepticism: “We, teachers, are used to working by evaluating the student, to help them progress. But these evaluations are disconnected from the reality of our work. Other than marking system failures, what are they used for? A few years ago, in my middle school, the evaluation established that 75% of the students did not have the sufficient level in maths. What do we do with this result if it does not lead to additional resources in priority education areas? »
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