Early school-leaving considered in terms of regional inequalities: new perspectives?
Early school-leaving is declining, both in France and across Europe. The early school-leaving rate has fallen from 13% to 9% in ten years. By focusing on the regions, an intermediate level between national policy and individual education and labour market trajectories can be brought into play. New approaches to the issue can then be identified by linking individual trajectories, local public actions and national policies. The various articles in this issue underline the well-known diversity of regional configurations. They shed light on the driving forces and processes underlying this diversity.
Dropping out, and after ? The effects of school experience on student’s positions
Pierre-Yves Bernard et Christophe Michaut
In what situations are young people after dropping out from secondary education ? A survey conducted toward 2 935 dropouts, questioned 13 months on average after leaving school, shows that they are mostly unemployed or out from the labour market. However, a part of them is in employment or full-time training. The diversity of school experiences leading to drop out affects significantly the first steps in the school-to-work transition : experiences that are less painful and closer to full qualification increase employment, while very early leaving at a middle school level puts dropouts away from the labour market.
Regional management of school dropout : public action in tension
François Burban et Yves Dutercq
The struggle against school dropout in the context of the new French policy has led to major changes, two of them are discussed in our article : the reorientation of national policies and their management by the decentralized services of the National ministry of Education ; the measures and tools implemented by the regional councils in the struggle against dropping out, in particular the “monitoring and support platforms for dropouts”. Thus, we question the articulation between national educational policy and the local implementation of the public action whose effectiveness conflicts both with the logic of the institutions as well as those of their agents.
What local solutions to Early School Leaving?
Thierry Berthet, Amandine Brizio et Véronique Simon
This article studies the implementation of early school leaving (ESL) policies within three French territories. It aims to unpack the role of territorial dynamics on the regional and local ESL policies at three analytical levels : the framework of local public offer, the territorial constraints on the implementation of ESL policies and the beneficiaries’ experience of these policies.
Educational misalliance : the example of a territorialized partnership to fight school dropout
Laure Minassian
Few research have focused on longitudinal studies to investigate new educational meso-systems to fight early school leaving.This contribution aims to focus in from their political conception until their operational deployment, through a case study of a Region, an association and three vocational high schools, within a device called “educational alliances”. The analysis aims to reveal how the interactions between a policy, the school institution, the associative actors and the students generate effects adversaries to those desired.
What role for the local labor market on the risk of school dropouts?
Vanessa di Paola et Stéphanie Moullet
By estimating multilevel models, we show that the characteristics of the local labor market affect the risk of dropping out of school leavers in 2010, even if the individual characteristics remain the most important. Thus, living in employment areas where the social norm is to pursue studies reduces the risk of dropping out. Similarly, the weight of apprenticeship contracts limits this risk, but the existence of subsidized jobs opportunities increases it. Finally, a high youth unemployment rate encourages young people to leave school without a diploma and this effect is amplified for young people with low socio-economic backgrounds.
Hors Dossier
Public, Private and Priority education zones : a comparative analysis of social mixing at school
Pierre Courtioux et Tristan-Pierre Maury
Based on social segregation indices for the period 2004-2014, we compare the level of social mixing at the middle school level between private schools and public schools in and out of priority education zones (ZEP). Private schools are slightly over-represented among the most “mixed” as well as the most “segregated” schools. At a given level of diversity, private schools receive relatively less disadvantaged social backgrounds pupils. Excluding ZEP schools, the most “segregated” schools have a tendency to separate students with advantaged social background and other students.
Sectoral Action Contracts in Training and Employment : a Mean to Assess Territorial Social Dialogue
Bruno Lamotte et Aline Valette-Wursthen
We study in three French regions before the merger of 2016 sectoral action contracts in the field of training and employment. Using a reading grid that distinguishes procedural and substantive characteristics, we highlight functional equivalences around three categories, recruitment, training and manpower management. Assuming that these contracts are implied by the new management of training in the regions, we can deduce the existence of new challenges for the industrial relations system, quite different from the existing collective bargaining.
