Exploring the roles and effects of private education in France – RePrive

In the context of rapid growth in private education and increasing pressure to enter higher education, the RePrive project examines the unprecedented role of the private sector in the new state of the French secondary and higher education systems. The project challenges fundamental yet now outdated findings on private education by considering together the transformations in both secondary and higher education. It stands out for the place it gives to lesser-known aspects of private education.
The project pursues four main objectives: (1) To assess the demographic and morphological specificities of private education and its differences from the public sector, from secondary to higher education, by studying students, teachers, institutions, and educational pathways; (2) To analyze the determinants and effects of the use of private secondary schools in the context of the third educational expansion; (3) To study the effects of reforms in the vocational baccalaureate, high school(lycée) reform, and Parcoursup on enrollment in private high schools(lycées); (4) To understand the historical rise of private higher education by combining an analysis of the educational programs and the student orientation processes.
The project will be divided into five tasks, with an additional coordination task. These tasks are interconnected through a pool of materials and share of analyses. They are also designed to be operational, with specialized task leaders in the relevant areas who are involved in various activities of the task. Finally, they are organized to involve analyses covering both secondary and higher education (except for task 5), ensuring comparisons and cross-analyses between different levels of the education system. These tasks will involve: (1) quantifying the role of the private sector in students' educational pathways using the DEPP panels of 2007, 2011, and 2023, individual Parcoursup data, matched with the SISE and Post-Bac databases, and the “Conditions de vie” survey (OVE); (2) conducting surveys with parents, and students who have chosen private education through interviews conducted at various levels and in different contexts; (3) capturing the differentiated evolution of teachers in the public and private sectors through an original survey of candidates for competitive exams and an unprecedented analysis of the Enquête Emploi; (4) analyzing the role and effects of private education in different "localized social spaces" (the south of Île-de-France, particularly Antony-Châtenay-Malabry and Villejuif; Réunion; Lyon; and Angers); (5) creating a typology of the (new) place of private education in post-baccalaureate training by cross-referencing various sources and indicators. Together, the research conducted will shed light on the roles and effects of private education on schooling conditions, segregation, and educational pathways, as well as the organization of public education.
The team is composed of J. Cayouette-Remblière, an INED researcher and project leader, 5 tenured teacher-researchers, and 4 funded PHD students who will benefit from integration into the research collective and participate in the sharing of materials. It will also include a post-doctoral researcher involved in ethnographies, a PHD student focusing on private education in vocational lycée, and a engineer responsible for complex data matching within the databases. The project will contribute to shedding light on a particularly prominent social issue in public debate (e.g., the media coverage of Claire Marchal's book, the question of social segregation in private secondary schools, and the role of private education in Parcoursup).