School Segregation in France: The Role of Public Policies and Stakeholder Strategies

Segregate, Discriminate, Signal: A Model for Understanding Policy Drivers of Educational Inequality

“…Second, choice systems are often designed, either intentionally or unintentionally, in a way that makes it harder for vulnerable populations to enroll in top schools. This includes basing enrollment on complicated lottery systems that provide advantages to educated, wealthy parents with better access to information on these systems; limiting the services they provide; and using other strategies to exclude certain populations (Bunka, 2011;Felouzis et al, 2018;Furgeson et al, 2012;Jacobs, 2013;Jarvis & Alvanides, 2008;Nathanson et al, 2013;Rotberg, 2014;Welner, 2013).…”

“…However, more often the case is that school districts mirror or lie within segregated residential units, substantiating the separation of students between districts and schools (Knight, 2020; Oberti, 2005). When White families represent a smaller share in small districts, they often use avoidance strategies, such as enrolling in charter and magnet schools, and thus effectively keep the school district segregated (Dixon et al, 2008; Felouzis et al, 2018; Saporito & Sohoni, 2007). This practice may be especially prominent in areas of neighborhood gentrification—areas that are rapidly diversifying but in which neighborhood schools often remain segregated due to such avoidance strategies (Orfield & Jongyeon, 2017; Pearman, 2020).…”

“…Some explanations for this modern segregation focus on factors unrelated to current education policy-housing segregation, for example. Numerous studies have shown how housing patterns can be associated with school segregation (Bischoff, 2008;Felouzis et al, 2018;Oberti, 2007;Owens, 2016;Reardon, 2015;Reardon et al, 2000;Schwartz, 2011;Stroub & Richards, 2013). Another explanation focuses on the history of mandated school segregation in the United States, pointing to the decades-long segregation that occurred prior to the Brown ruling and that may have long-lasting effects (Kluger, 2011).…”

Modes of Grouping Students, Segregation and Educational Inequalities. A Longitudinal Analysis of a Cohort of Students in Switzerland

“…state) (Hörner et al, 2015). In France, in spite of a supposedly integrated education system, schools differentiate themselves greatly depending on their student composition and the academic level of their students, recreating de facto streams (Felouzis, Fouquet-Chauprade, & Charmillot, 2019). In many cases, instead of bringing highly segmented and perfectly integrated systems into opposition, many education policies have chosen mixed solutions, trying to take advantage of both systems.…”