Twenty years on – what can PISA tell us about educational inequality in France and England?

This article examines French and English average performances and educational inequality in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) between 2000 and 2018. It asks why English average scores in 2018 are much higher than those of France when they were fairly similar in previous PISA assessments. It questions why the impact of socio-economic background on educational performance in England decreased while the reverse has been the case for France. This is all the more damning given the French republican espousal of égalité. It examines policies in both countries and analyses to what extent PISA has impacted on these. It argues that in England, policies of autonomy, accountability and competition, in line with the OECD and its own tradition of liberalism, have been implemented rigorously. In France, because of left-right oppositional dynamics and the role of embedded republican principles, the status quo has been maintained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]