6533b835fe1ef96bd129fb9e

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Doit-on sélectionner ou former les élites scolaires ? Une comparaison internationale des politiques éducatives

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This article aims to provide a starting point for reflection about the conditions required for building up an academic elite in mandatory school systems, through international quantitative evaluation.The academic elite are defined, here, not in terms of the educational level they have reached, but through the skills levels attained: the proportion of students who have reached, in each country, the highest level of skill on the main section of the PISA 2000 test. After setting out the theoretical framework, it provides analysis showing that amongst the societal factors, once a certain level of economic development has been exceeded, the size of the academic elite population is much more a function of level of education within the adult population, rather than the demographic profile, economic wealth or more or less egalitarian social structure of the countries. Looking beyond societal factors, the article also analyses the relationship between the size of the elite population, academic inequalities and educational policy (core instruction versus distinct degree programmes, homogeneous classes, individualised instruction, academic independence, freedom of choice for the schools, etc.).