A ranking of lycées in France is produced each year according to the success rate and the access rate of each. The results reveal whether a high school is performing or not.
For the 28th year, the National Education has published the “indicators of added value of high schools.” This indicator aims to estimate the performance of an establishment, not in relation to its success rate in the baccalaureate, but rather with what "We call the access rate. It would indeed be meaningless to classify a high school by the number of students admitted to the bac since an establishment which would have drastic entry criteria would necessarily obtain almost perfect results."
All institutions are not equal in terms of material, size or the situation of students. In addition to this, you need to know more about it.
What is the access rate?
Nothing to do with success. This is in fact the number of students who entered second, and who go on to the baccalaureate in the same high school, without reorientation. To measure the access rate and find out if a high school has achieved the expected results, it is compared to other similar high schools in terms of size, options, area, training … Vocational high schools are obviously not excluded from the calculation.
For example, a high school with a high entry rate will have managed to take a good number of students to the baccalaureate. A high school with a low entry rate will show a number of reorientations, but also total dropouts.
Should we classify high schools?
The National Education then calculates each year the success rate and the access rate of all high schools, ensuring at best fairness in relation to situations. A high school is considered to be "successful" when its pass and access rates exceed expected rates by five points. It is considered to be "poor performer" if the total of rates is five points lower than expected.
But can we consider that a high school which reorients a large number of its students is in a situation of failure? Reorientation does not mean giving up. It is simply realizing that it is not "that" which corresponds to a student. And that's okay. The downside of this ranking is that it has happened that students have been refused the university or school of their dreams, not because of their academic results, but because of the ranking of their institution.
The advantage of this classification which is sometimes a source of controversy: it can help certain high schools to improve and shed light on high schools which bend over backwards for their students by deploying special means and methods.