Social diversity in middle schools : first results from experiments conducted in France

Abstract

Social segregation between schools is substantial, and may have consequences on students’ academic achievement and well-being, as well as for social cohesion in the longer term. In 2015, the French ministry of Education launched an initiative to promote greater social diversity in middle schools. By comparing students in middle schools participating in this initiative (« pilot middle schools ») with those in similar, non-participating middle-schools (« control middle schools ») we analyse the effects of the measures undertaken on the social composition of participating middle schools, as well as on students’ academic outcomes, and their personal and social well-being. Findings show that :

• Measures aimed at increasing social diversity didn’t lead to greater avoidance of the public system in favour of private schooling ;
• students enrolled in schools where social diversity increased substantially did not experience any significant change in academic achievement compared with students in control schools, regardless of their socio-economic background, indicating that the policy had neither positive nor negative effects on learning outcomes ;
• However, greater social diversity did have positive effects on both personal and social well-being, for students from disadvantaged as well as advantaged backgrounds.

This report was written by Julien Grenet, Elise Huillery, and Youssef Souidi.