Ranking of middle and high schools 2024: a more realistic overview thanks to new criteria

This is a ranking expected by many parents: that of the best middle and high schools, both public and private, and their success rate (both for the baccalaureate and for the baccalaureate). But it is clear that this success figure has not really had any weight for some time, as it seems to have increased: thus, in 2023, the success rate for the general baccalaureate rose to 90.9% when that of the patent reached 89.1%. How to differentiate establishments?

Added values ​​to exam results

In published rankings such as that of Le Figaro, the criteria evaluated are therefore refined this year. In addition to the data provided by the Directorate of Evaluation, Foresight and Performance (Depp) at the Ministry of National Education, added value indicators for high schools (Ival) and colleges (Ivac) were added.

These make it possible to evaluate the real performance of establishments, by comparing what was expected of them according to their starting level, their social origin and the results of their students.

The rate of access to the baccalaureate or the certificate from the second or sixth year until the exam, that is to say the fact that the students were able to stay their entire education in the same establishment, is also part of the criteria.

Thus, the prestigious Stanislas College (Paris 6th), for example, which has the best average of the colleges in the ranking, sees its grade drop due to 12% of 6th grade students who must leave the establishment before the certificate.

The rate of “very good” mentions, on the other hand, is absent from the data provided by Depp.

A criterion that highlights progress in priority areas

The weight of social determinism, and the difficulties in the most disadvantaged establishments are also obvious when we only take the success rate into play. Thus the World of this day demonstrates that the differences drawn from the basis of data from the ministry is eloquent:

However, the study of the “added values” of colleges helps to temper this dark observation. “If no establishment in priority education is among the 500 best colleges based on marks obtained in writing, nearly 16% of them are included in this list when we take the criterion of added value.”

Overall, more than 70% of REP+ colleges provide added value for successful completion of the certificate, according to the criteria established by the Ministry of National Education. One establishment in five even has a median success rate 10 points higher than expected. Enough to have a more lucid look at the surrounding establishments.

Well-being at school, the element missing from this ranking

At a time of plans against school bullying, and the mental health of students being scrutinized, these rankings, on the other hand, say nothing about the development of students due to a lack of available data.

Not because this criterion is perceived as less important (than success), but because measuring the degree of satisfaction with one’s educational establishment is difficult today. Well-being thus has more or less broad definitions, which have recently been studied in certain areas. A study carried out in 2015 in the Nantes region, for example, listed five elements constituting a scale of well-being at school, according to the students questioned: the relationship with teachers, school activities, the classroom climate, the feeling of safety and the relationship to evaluations. But a student’s point of view cannot be neutral, and also depends on other parameters (his family environment, his personality, his cultural norms). It therefore seems difficult to establish a strict scale on this subject.