The influence of the organization of school systems on efficiency and equity[L'Influence De L'Organisation Des Systemes Educatifs Sur L'Efficacite Et L'Equite]

Two recent polemical reports for the French government recommend reforms concerning the organization of the school system (primary and secondary) reinforcing the incentives (Pochard report) and competition (Attali report) in the context of an increased autonomy and evaluation of schools and teachers. The poor performance registered by France in international studies inclines indeed to wonder about the efficiency of the institutional organization of the school system. In this respect, this article presents the results of several foreign experiments, which aimed (during the last thirty years) at developing two new modes of school regulation, in reaction to bad performances observed in their public schools. The first one concerns the decentralization of the management of a certain number of resources, in the form of contractualisation strengthened with the State, notably as regards the objectives to reach (accountability, evaluation). The second consisted of the implementation of a competition between schools in a system of "quasi-markets", via the institution of checks-education (vouchers). These two alternative forms of regulation present a priori some advantages with regard to the current model prevailing in France of "hierarchical control", notably as regards their respective capacity to minimize the transaction costs and the needs of information to reach an optimal solution. The empirical analyses of these experiments allow to pull certain number of conclusions. So, if we can reasonably aspire that the stake in competition presents serious limits, notably in equity, this is different as far as the approach in terms of external contractualisation / evaluation with the State is concerned.