Urban and school segregation in Paris: The complexity of contextual effects on school achievement: The case of middle schools in the Paris metropolitan area

Abstract

In French cities, because of a rigid school catchment area policy based on students’ place of residence, there is a strong correlation between socio-residential segregation and school segregation. But the latter is not merely a simple, mechanical reflection of the former. Many processes (the choice of private schools or of specific and very often selective and rare curricula that make it possible to avoid the local public middle school; disability; siblings; personal convenience) contribute to exacerbating the correlation. Using data from the Ministry of Education, the current paper develops a typology of middle schools according to their socio-economic composition (using Correspondence Analysis and Hierarchical Agglomerative Classification), and looks at their unequal spatial distribution across the Paris metropolitan area. We measure school segregation using classical indices, and show that school segregation is higher than socio-residential segregation, particularly for students from upper-middle class backgrounds and for students from working class backgrounds. The spatial analysis of segregation, when compared with test scores, reveals strong inequalities between locations. The impact of school segregation on school success has been mainly analysed in terms of the effect of students’ social background. If one looks at the number of top tier marks (‘mention bien et très bien’) obtained at the final middle school exam in the Paris metropolitan area from 2006 to 2012, it is possible to see that girls and boys are not equally sensitive to these contextual effects. Based on logistic regressions, the analysis of the interactions between individual characteristics (socio-economic background and gender) and contextual variables (the school’s status [private/public], its location, its socio-economic composition) gives a more complex picture. This raises both methodological and political questions that suggest the need for an intersectional approach. Such a finding presents a challenge not only for social scientists studying segregation and school inequalities, but also for policy makers who want to reinforce mixed schooling.

The role of geography in school segregation in the free parental choice context of Dutch cities

“…This is partly because of data, but in the case of France also due to a strong taboo on focusing on ethnic and racial inequalities (Oberti, 2008) and in the UK due to a longstanding scholarly tradition for the analysis of social class (Ball, 2003). Many studies point to a growing segregation of working class and middle class schooling, resulting in a widening gap between circuits of social reproduction (Ball, 2003;Oberti and Savina, 2019;Reay et al, 2011). While ethnic and social segregation are not the same and some mechanisms are specific for particular groups, many explanations for school segregation revolve around a number of central relationships.…”

Desigualdades Socioespaciales en la Educación Secundaria Postobligatoria. El Caso de Madrid

“…Este efecto mantiene una relación compleja con las características del territorio (Brännström, 2008;Kauppinen, 2008;Owens y Candipan, 2019;Sykes y Musterd, 2011); de hecho, el impacto de las características pedagógicas y organizativas de los centros escolares en los resultados académicos del alumnado está altamente condicionado por la composición social de las escuelas (Alegre y Ferrer, 2010;Bonal y Bellei, 2018). No obstante, aunque la segregación escolar está, en parte, provocada por la segregación residencial, la primera tiende a superar a la segunda (Bonal y Albaigés, 2009;Oberti y Savina, 2019) porque también es consecuencia de algunas características del sistema educativo, como los mecanismos de diferenciación (entre centros educativos o intracentro), la existencia de un elevado número de escuelas privadas que imponen mecanismos de selección del alumnado y el desarrollo de políticas de libertad de elección (Bonal y Bellei, 2018).…”

“…La disponibilidad, accesibilidad y calidad de los centros escolares varía entre distintas zonas del espacio urbano, lo que se traduce en oportunidades desiguales. Estudios internacionales han puesto de manifiesto una fuerte tendencia a la diferenciación de las escuelas y la oferta escolar en varias capitales europeas (Londres, París, Amsterdam) y su compleja relación con las desigualdades urbanas (Butler y Robson, 2003;Gramberg, 1998;Oberti, 2007;Oberti y Savina, 2019). Los contextos urbanos más privilegiados tienden a contar con una oferta educativa más diversificada, atractiva y que reporta mejores resultados, mientras las zonas con mayor composición de clase trabajadora ofrecen recursos educativos más pobres en cantidad y calidad (Oberti, 2007;Owens y Candipan, 2019), lo que deja en desventaja a los niños y jóvenes residentes en ellas.…”

‘Notorious Schools’ in ‘Notorious Places’? Exploring the Connectedness of Urban and Educational Segregation

“…So far, several studies have demonstrated that school segregation is to a large extent the effect of residential patterns (Boterman, 2019;Frankenberg, 2013). However, the former is not just a simple reflection of the latter; their connection is rather exacerbated by several different processes (Candipan, 2019;Oberti & Savina, 2019). Since the relationship between residential and school segregation is crucial to understand intergenerational social mobility and inequality (Boterman et al, 2019), the topic is of high educational and socio-political relevance.…”