With permission from the AFT
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                  A Profile of France's Education System
                        Non-College-Bound Students
Compulsory education in France officially begins at age 6. All
students-regardless of ability, achievement, future career aspirations,
region of the country, or neighborhood-take the same common national
curriculum during their five years of primary school (ecole primaire,
grades 1-5) and the first two years of lower secondary school (the
equivalent of grades 6 and 7). More than three-quarters of the students
will continue with an essentially common national curriculum for another
two years (the equivalent of grades 8 and 9).
At the completion of 9th grade, French students can earn the lower
secondary diploma, the brevet de college. To do so, they must earn
satisfactory course grades in a wide range of academic courses and perform
well on brevet examinations based on the national curriculum in French,
mathematics, and history/geography. The brevet diploma itself is not a
formal requirement to exit 9th grade or to enter the university-bound track
at upper secondary school. However, it appears that students must achieve a
level of performance in their coursework equivalent to passing the brevet
if they wish to continue in the academic track. Consequently, more than 80
percent of French students take the brevet exams and 75 percent of those
test takers earn the diploma. In other words, more than 60 percent of the
age cohort earn brevets de college.
The French National Curriculum
The French national ministry of education has legal authority over all
aspects of curriculum and assessment. It mandates the number of hours
elementary and secondary students must spend in each subject at each grade
level, and for each course it outlines both general principles of
instruction and specific concepts to be mastered. Certain functions are
nonetheless delegated to twenty-eight regional administrative districts,
called academies. The academies are responsible for developing and grading^
brevet exams, in accordance with clear national rules, and for inspecting
schools on a regular basis to ensure instruction is consistent with the
national curriculum. Despite this strong centralization, individual
teachers have a great deal of freedom to choose their own instructional
techniques and construct their own lessons. It is not true (myths to the
contrary) that on any given day in a given grade the lessons taught are the
same.
Ecole Primaire
Although compulsory education in France doesn't officially begin until age
6, nearly all 3, 4, and 5 year olds attend preschool. At age 6, students
begin five years of ecole primaire, during which time they will all study a
common national curriculum of French, math, arts and crafts, natural
sciences, history and geography, civics, music, and physical education.
College
After completing primary school, students move on to the college, the lower
secondary school where they spend the next four years (the U.S. equivalent
of 6th through 9th grade). In the first two years of college, all
students-regardless of ability, prior achievement, or career
aspirations-study common coursework in French, math, physical science,
natural science, social science (history, geography, and civics) art and
music, technical education, and physical education. Students also begin
their first foreign language in the 6th grade, choosing from (depending on
the academie) English, German, Italian, and Russian.
During this two-year period, the conseil de college, a committee at each
college consisting of the principal, a teacher from each grade, and parent
and student representatives elected by their peers, meets three times a
year to discuss the academic, social, and emotional progress of each
student. At the end of two years, the conseil assesses the progress of each
student and recommends a future educational path for him or her. In most
cases, the students and parents follow the conceil's recommendation.
Based on this recommendation, the vast majority of students (87 percent)
continue on the general academic track, preparing for the brevet de college
exams. Their curriculum during the last two years of college consists of
the same compulsory subjects as the first two years, plus students select
one elective in either a second modern foreign language (the choice of most
students), ancient Greek, Latin, economics and business, or industrial
technology. The curriculum in the compulsory subjects remains the same for
all students, and there is no formal policy of ability grouping. However,
students who choose a given elective are grouped together for their other
classes, and higher-achieving students tend to select more difficult
electives, thus creating some de facto ability grouping during these last
two years of college.
A minority of students (10.2 percent of all 8th graders) will spend the
last two years of college in a "technological" program and earn a brevet
technologique. Two-thirds of the curriculum for these students consists of
academic subjects-French, math, science, history/geography, a foreign
language, home economics, arts, and sports. Students spend the remainder of
their time in project-oriented classes designed to expose them (at a
general level) to career areas such as engineering, industrial technology
or business. In addition to these students, a tiny group (2.3 percent of
8th graders) will exit college after 7th grade to begin early preparation
for an occupational certificate, the Certiftcat d'Aptitude Professionnele
(CAP), at vocational upper secondary schools (lycees professionnel).
However, this second option is gradually being phased out. Students
typically will complete college before beginning to prepare for the CAP. At
the beginning of 9th grade, an additional small percentage of students will
move from the general academic track to the technological or vocational
track.
Thus by the end of college, about 85 percent of French 9th graders have
completed the general academic course of study. In other words, more than
four-fifths of French students remain in untracked academic coursework for
the first nine years of compulsory education.
The Brevet de College
To earn the brevet diploma, students must meet two basic requirements:
complete four years of nationally prescribed common courses on the general
academic track of college; and sit for brevet exams in three subjects:
French, math, and history/geography. The diploma is awarded based on exam
results plus classroom performance in all subjects during the last two
years of college. The importance of course grades to earning the diploma
motivates students to take all their classwork seriously and not simply
concentrate on whatever they believe will be on the exam.
Both course grades and exams are graded on a 20-point scale, with students
rarely scoring above 15. In the three exam subjects, exam scores are
doubleweighted, then averaged with course grades to achieve a combined
score. For the other subjects, course grades alone serve as the final
scores. To earn the diploma, the average of a student's scores from all
subjects must equal at least a 10. Virtually all students who finish 9th
grade on the academic track take the brevet de college exam and 75 percent
of test takers earn the diploma-which translates to about 60 percent of the
age cohort.
Developing and Grading the Brevet Exam
As noted earlier, there is no single set of brevet exams taken by all
students across the country. Instead, each academie develops its own exams
based on the national curriculum. To ensure the exams are comparable in
their content and rigor, each academie must submit its exams to the
National Academic Commission for approval. The Commission, which consists
of national ministry officials, academie representatives, and individual
teachers, also establishes a standardized point system for grading the
brevet exams.
Brevet exams consist entirely of short-answer or essay questions; there are
no multiple-choice questions. The math exam contains short-answer questions
only; essay questions comprise 50 percent and 40 percent of the French and
history/geography exams, respectively. The regional academies oversee the
grading of the brevet exams. Each student's exams are graded by two local
teachers from outside the student's school.
Chuck Beams
Fidonet - 1:2608/70
cbeams@future.dreamscape.com
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* UniQWK #5290* 50% of all people are below average.
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