December 5 to 11, 2016 — Tower of Pisa — Pisa and political — Pisa-Shock or denial — Recipe — Fillon / Le Pen — Reading -. Pisa is not pie … For the chronicler, it always portends a notepad where it borders indigestion. As one might suspect it is this investigation will be the focus of this return on educational week: there will discuss the results, analyzes, policy issues and methodological criticisms. But we will add a bit of hot sauce with the words of politicians from right and extreme right. Before finishing dessert with some reading tips and self-promotion assumed to get this invigorating notepad. PISA Tour This week, we risked indigestion … PISA The OECD communication is very effective and made to create suspense. It’s only Tuesday, December 6 at 11 am that the report of PISA 2015 was revealed. This was done in the presence of the Minister of Education that was a first. Articles presenting the results and comments were numerous during the week. The question is whether the impact of this survey will do my homework for free
be sustainable or not … In fact, what it is that this survey? 72 countries are analyzed in this benchmarking study reveals that the OECD every three years. 540.000 15 year olds were tested around the world during a two-hour exam. The survey focused in 2015 on the science knowledge as nine years ago. Six thousand French, 15 to 16 years, have been working on the issue in three areas: scientific literacy, mathematics and reading comprehension. But what the tests look like? At 80%, it is the same as the previous edition. The results can then be compared from one survey to another. So, to ensure that students practice and distort the notes, most exercises are kept secret. Only a few examples are made public. The winners, with Singapore this year featured, is not the most interesting in the PISA report. We must remember that the differences between the seats take a few index points and are ultimately insignificant. Yet it is this comparison of "performance" which is often highlighted in the presentation made by the report the general press. In terms of ranking, science, France is 27th this year, just average. In reading literacy, France was 19th and 26th in math. We can say that it is "less worse" than in the previous PISA. Neither progress nor regression in relation to 2013, with a score of 495 points in science, France is slightly above the OECD average (493), behind Germany and Belgium (above 500 points) and ahead of Italy (481). Stable performance since 2006. What is more interesting, beyond compare, this is what is said about the situation in France. In the small summary provided by the OECD, we read the following sentence that summarizes much of what we must remember: "In all countries and economies participating in PISA 2015, students 15 years poorer (lower quartile of the index of socio-economic background) are less likely to succeed in school than their more advantaged peers (upper quartile of the index of socio-economic background). The difference in results between these two groups of students is particularly marked in France, where the relationship between performance and socio-economic background of students is one of the strongest economies among the countries participating in the PISA 2015 survey in other words, the more you come from a disadvantaged background in France, the less chance of success in PISA 2015 ". "These results must be accepted with seriousness as the French student performance 15 years are average and the weight of social determinism is unacceptable stressed the Minister at the presentation of the report. "France is the country of splits, summarizes Najat Vallaud-Belkacem .With a school that is effective for a majority of his students, but that fails to succeed 20 to 30% of children." In 2015 as in 2006, 8% of our students are ranked among the best performers of the Pisa study. And 22% among those in difficulty. We also note in this synthesis that 22% of students have repeated at least once before the age of 15 years, double the average of OECD countries (but this is diminishing with the changes rules). The OECD also notes that "internal evaluations or self-evaluations on the quality of education within schools are less common in France" than elsewhere. In other words not enough teachers are evaluated and does not offer them enough training. We also know that the PISA survey also developing "context questionnaires" that allow us to learn about the students from immigrant backgrounds, the pleasure of learning or even absenteeism. Everyone can find this information in the synthesis proposed by the OECD. We can mostly complete by the excellent analysis of Marie Duru-Bellat in The Conversation published in the December 8th. Following OECD analysts, it begins by noting that the decline in average performance between 2000 and 2003 does seem halted, since in 2006 is stability prevails. But, we remain one of the country (including French-speaking Belgium) where the performance gaps between students are greatest. According to her, one important reason is the existence in our country, repetition. And she says: "we continue to redouble struggling students, mostly from disadvantaged social backgrounds, which pulls the average down. Inequalities between students also depend on the importance of social and educational segregation between schools and in the field, our situation has deteriorated notably the tendency to encourage the free choice of school. Indeed, we see that in the least unequal systems, the choice of school is regulated, decentralization is framed and the private is low. ". And it concludes with the observation that "countries whose students are the best are also the ones that minimize inequality. In the mass of comments and summaries, we particularly note some articles that provide a fairly complete synthesis. This is the case of Marie-Christine Corbier in Les Echos, La Croix Denis Peiron or Mattea Battaglia and Aurelie Collas in Le Monde. We can also point out the work of the newspaper Liberation with Sonya Faure and Marie Thornton. They also offer a fairly comprehensive summary of the results but also pose a series of questions. And with first, an inevitable question: Is it a problem of means? If we stick to the national budget devoted to education, the answer is no. France is in the average of OECD countries, with about 5% of its GDP dedicated to education. "From a certain level of investment, the financial issue has no impact on student achievement, says Gabriela Ramos, OECD. What then plays is how the money is used, the choices that are made. ". France stands out above all by a large imbalance between the money given to the first degree and that granted to the latter. We spend 15% less for our primary school that countries comparable to ours. Other questions are also relevant: "Are our teachers poorly trained?"; "Should we review our teaching methods? "; "Is there A neglected fundamentals? "; "Is the education system too centralized? ". And all these questions raise the issue of educational policies to date, their continuity and effectiveness … But before going further on this theme policies and to end on the results, let me a little rant about the media treatment of this investigation. See titrate "always poor French students’ and other securities of the same stuff (in Pisa …) is deeply annoying. Again we must remember that these are not students being assessed but the system … PISA and Policies On Tuesday, the presence of the Minister of Education at the OECD headquarters during the presentation of the survey was a first. She was awarded on this occasion a booklet entitled "PISA 2015: the challenges of the French education system and international best practices." What is also new. This gives the following headline in Le Parisien "The OECD warns the French right." Christel BRIGAUDEAU noted that "the international organization has engaged in advocacy at all subliminal in favor of the policy Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, invited — a first for a Minister of Education — to review the results of Pisa 2015 at the podium along with experts from the OECD. "and she notes that even if the teacher training, virtually non-existent, remains a dark spot in the french system, the OECD sees favorably the policies implemented by the left since 2012. "We have a message: we must really continue this policy there, and do not go back, because it wastes time, and France has already lost a lot of time" says Eric Charbonnier the OECD french expert on education issues. According to him, "there was an awareness that government need to act on inequalities, and can combine quality and social equity" in the school system insists the specialist, calling for " patience "to judge on parts. In passing, we note that given the current climate in national education, it is not sure what kind of title and this information will be really good for the cause of the school. But we will return. What does this brochure. given to the minister? It identifies "best practices" which France could draw and advanced four challenges for our educational system: — Making more equitable education system in France and support students and disadvantaged schools — Fighting against school failure dice a young age — Improving the quality of teaching and transmission of knowledge in primary and secondary, and upgrade the teaching profession — Enhance the quality and enhancement of vocational courses in high school. For those who are interested in innovation and change in the education system this small 28-page booklet is to read in detail. We can also complete a survey in Liberation which comes on some foreign examples. Let us briefly, as a result of this comparative approach, several newspapers are getting more or less successfully in analyzes of what is done elsewhere. Thus one has the right to several articles on "the method of Singapore" for the teaching of mathematics who feel a little stunt and editorial … It seems that we will reuse it to us all sauces this method of Singapore … When you read these results one may be tempted by an easy shortcut. Does this mean that the efforts in recent years to reduce educational inequalities (stimulus early schooling in disadvantaged areas, redesign of the priority education system "more masters classes" implemented in schools focus the most difficulties, etc.) have been in vain? This is what suggests the MP Annie Genevard, Delegate General for Education at Republicans. "France keeps its sad title of champion of social inequalities in school! Failed @najatvb policy, she wrote on Twitter. The remark above shows that the difficulties of calculation does not only concern the 15-year olds. For the subtraction is nevertheless easy to do as we already relevions in our notebook last week. Children who are assessed by the PISA 2015 are thus born in 2000 and they spent most of their education from 2005 (Fillon Act) and primarily through a policy of "right". If you really want to assess the effects of the current policy, it would take the PISA 2021 … The time of education is a long time. He resents media shortcuts and quick political commentary. . Pisa shock or denial? "I hope that the accumulation of these assessments will allow an awareness in society, said Jean-Paul Delahaye, former director of school education in Liberation. And it will allow us to act beyond our political differences. ". "These surveys tend a rather cruel mirror to those who delude themselves of the illusion that our system adds Regis Malet, professor of education at Bordeaux still in Liberation France remains the champion of inequality, we have seen it’s still the main information of the survey, but will it generate a "Pisa-Shock" as was the case in other countries? Nothing is less sure. After a few days of comments, we realize that the media bubble burst quickly. Without this creates a real awareness in public opinion. How to explain this? "For seven years I’ve journalist education and seven years as I write that France is champion of social and educational inequality. Louise wrote on Tourret Slate.fr […] Is France doomed to reproduce his failures in education? […] was the debate we deserve, we deserve the school. No child entering kindergarten, CP, is not responsible for the futility of our discussions about the school, nor the lack of collective will to change things. And this will not just that or not ministers of education is that of an entire society. For now, everything happens in France as if they had developed the art of saying anything and everything about the school, between pessimism and mixing solutions that do not work through being juxtaposed loosely implemented and applied with difficulty. To change school and make our education system more effective and fair, it should be a social and political consensus. With the aim of really wanting to do more successful children, but also to find ways to achieve it within our beautiful school. I do not see it coming now. I would, like many political observers, plant me heavily. ". Claude Lelievre, historian of education in JDD.fr confirms this habit inequality: "Our educational system is built on top It’s no coincidence that France is the country rankings, contest. and colleges. we who are part of the school and continue to be doing well. that is why, past the emotion of the moment, Pisa results do not lead to drastic measures "a fairly similar analysis in Dubet in Les Echos. Since Napoleon, in a country with natural elites eliminated from the legacy of blood and nobility with the Revolution, built a school dedicated to" prepare educational elites that would save the country. "the school continues today to produce an early stage elites. And it shows that this pedagogy adapted to elite has long been rooted in our school system." in countries the more successful we will set students an attainable goal, like running the 100 meters in 13 seconds, so that everyone will succeed and that we will support that goes faster than others, notes Dubet. In France, they will be asked to run the 100 meters in 10 seconds, will help those who do not succeed, but they will not run faster so far … "Another difficulty is also due to political positions, especially in teacher opinion. We mentioned earlier the support of the OECD in the policies of the current government, and indeed, it is not certain whether an asset to accept this policy among some teachers. In France, there is concern over "who" speaks (and "where") than what is said. Whether the OECD, wrongly or rightly as the armed wing of liberalism that says we have to go towards more interdisciplinary and differentiated instruction can only reinforce some reforms in their refusal. While it is supposed to train our students to think critically and to be wary of complotisme we react ourselves very mechanically to signals to which we are able to step back. "OECD = liberalism = absolute evil" is fast and comfortable and it prevents some think. Without being naive, we can assume that within the OECD as of any organization, there are tensions and logic that clash and collide. In fact, if what the OECD and its representatives was formulated by Bourdieu (and I can provide fairly similar texts of the icon of the radical left), it would go a lot better! At the risk of annoying (even more!) Some teachers, we can repeat that criticism (legitimate and necessary, see below) of Pisa should not forget that this finding is not isolated. And we must not fall into denial by taking refuge in a leftist posture and maximalism that would mask the final educational conservatism and refusal to take head on a reflection on the school goals …. . PISA Recipe To close the topic from PISA, it is still necessary to review its methodology and criticism addressed to it. These criticisms are legitimate as with any investigative process. Le Monde devoted a long article to this question. "Are the PISA results valid? The answer is yes, it ensures Felouzis Georges, a sociologist at the University of Geneva. I do not know other surveys of this scale, the methodology is robust. ". It may take notice fairly close to Charles Hadji in The Conversation. For him, despite some bias and error margins, this "does not detract from the wealth of data collected or to the interests of the regular periodicity of the collection of information, which makes possible the finding of developments. ". This is not the same opinion for researchers Daunay Bertrand and Daniel Bart surveyed by Humanity. For them it is a "discourse that wants truth but is oriented." They especially criticized the way the survey is presented and interpreted, "it produces about" common sense "that most tend to blame people, including teachers and parents, as the questioning guidelines promoted by the OECD … "in this chapter of the criticism of the methodology and use of Pisa, one must also mention the position of Switzerland. While the results generate debate around the world says Le Monde, Switzerland, yet well ranked, the reaction is different. She "revolt against PISA" says the Swiss newspaper Le Temps and disputes the validity of the results of this international student assessment "We are facing a very serious quality problem whose consequences are difficult to measure, writes the President of the Conference of cantonal Ministers of education, in a letter to the OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria. The new way to conduct the investigation in 2015, after five editions held since 2000, been the subject of heavy fire from critics, State Councilor finds it impossible to compare the results with those of previous studies, both the methodology changed between editions. In a statement, the Union of French-speaking teachers share those reservations, judging the work of the OECD unprofessional. Stay tuned. . . Fillon Le Pen There has been the delivery of Pisa to put in their mouths during this week full of educational events. These are also the statements and proposals of two political leaders of the liberal right (Fillon Longuet) and the extreme right (Le Pen) have attracted much comment. In Les Echos, Marie-Christine Corbier relies on nearby statements of the candidate to clarify his educational proposals. In the school of Francois Fillon, the mastery of fundamental begin with a compulsory education from 5 years. The Kindergarten program would be reviewed again — it was amended in 2015. The acquisition of basic knowledge would be verified by "tests", "at least one year up to 15 years" The pupils would be "helped by a teacher support through his time spent in the institution, and possibly outside of school hours" schools (primary) would become public institutions, with elected their board of directors, and the director would have line authority over school teachers. The college has to be redesigned according to the spokesman Francois Fillon. The bilangues classes, which "bore fruit" would be revived to "extend the excellence." During the first two years of college, the student would, moreover, its number of teachers reduced to five, one teacher to teach several subjects. Francois Fillon also intends to "put the package," according to his spokesman, on training — initial and continuing — teachers and learning methods, to "put them in contact with the best teaching practices, as the experiments of the foundation acting for the school, including funded by the Institut Montaigne. The Francois Fillon program for education also involves "a certain autonomy of institutions in the implementation of educational policy" Headteachers second degree would "choose their personnel, including teachers." And many other things that I let you discover in this article. Senator Gerard Longuet, also very close to Francois Fillon, this week released a Senate report that plans to include in the working time of the two additional hours teachers are on average teachers in new annualized frame. The aggregate working time would be aligned with that of certified, bringing their weekly time of 15 to 20 hours. In the Pedagogical Cafe, Francois Jarraud retains this report violence and determination of Republicans eager to take action … We can also see it as a trial balloon or rather a diversion by playing on the opposition (and resentment) between categories as Sarkozy had played in 2012 by proposing to align the personal service obligations of the second degree on …. those of the first degree! The risk is that such projects take the form of a defense of the status quod then we need to against-proposals and not a withdrawal and a strictly defensive position. Najat Vallaud Belkacem reacted to this proposal by stating that this proposal "reveals profound misunderstanding" of the work of teachers. According to her, it is better to recognize the work of teachers, not to work more. Still about Francois Fillon, Olivier Caremelle in an article for Le Monde reminds the balance sheet of the former prime minister during Sarkozy five years. And he warned: "Do not have a short memory! Meanwhile, Marine Le Pen has said that if elected it would be "the end of recess" for foreign students. "I consider that the national solidarity must be expressed with regard to the French," said the president of the National Front. Then she said: "I have nothing against foreigners, but I tell them: If you come to our country, do not expect you to be supported, to be cared for, your children are educated free now it’s over, it’s the end of recess! ". No, the National Front has not changed, and the right either …. . Lectures The traditional end reading tips of notebook this week is marked by cronyism and self-promotion … assumed Friend Pierre Mathiot, is now ministerial delegate to the path of excellence and university professor Sciences Po Lille. Then director of this institution, he had created the IEP program, contest preparation Institutes of Political Studies for students of modest means. He gave an interview to Le Monde in which he advocates strengthening support for the most vulnerable young people into higher education. And since there is no reason not to do so, I point to finish the last issue of Economic Alternatives Records entitled "Reinventing the school, a tour of France’s initiatives." interesting contributions included is: Fabien Truong Dubet Marie Duru-Bellat Francoise Lantheaume Francois Taddei, Luc Ria Michel Quere, Marianne de Brunhoff, Jean-Marc Monteil, Philippe Meirieu Claude Lelievre … There also several reports that identify many initatives. And writing Alternatives economiques also held a meeting with the Minister in which I had the honor of participating. Are available while the number on the shop but the interview itself is freely available on AlterEcoPlus. It talks about innovation, managing change in the school, inequalities … To finish this voluminous notebooks, I retain what is virtually the conclusion made by the Minister: "I am devastated by current state of the debate on education. It reveals the part of some tribuniciens genuine hatred of teachers and a complete indifference to the fate of those they first see as "bad students". The school’s history is, unfortunately, as the history of war, as told by the winners, never by those who suffered there. I am indignant, for example, by the semantic heist on words such as merit. As if merit was innate. As if the environment in which it is built and in which accompanied it had no influence on our ability to work and even our taste for effort. All this can be learned, and it is to the school to teach, but still have to give him the means. In reality, what the reactionary discourse that currently booming fight, is equality. "Good Read This … Philippe Watrelot (head) work is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License — Non-Commercial — Share in Same Conditions 3.0 France. Posted by Watrelot to Sunday, December 11, 2016