Social position indices of schools (from 2022)

The Social Position Index (SPI) makes it possible to apprehend the social status of pupils from the professions and social categories (PCS) of their parents. Each PCS or PCS couple is associated with a numerical value of the IPS. This numerical value is a quantitative summary of a set of socio-economic and cultural attributes related to academic achievement. The higher the Social Position Index (SPI), the more students are on average of favoured social origin. The weaker it is, the more socially disadvantaged the pupils are of origin. Concretely, the reference values of the index for each PCS, or pair of PCS, are determined using a statistical method that makes it possible to synthesize a set of characteristics describing the living conditions of students (see article by Rocher, 2016). The index of a given CSP is thus the quantitative summary of a number of socio-economic and cultural attributes related to academic success, which are found on average for this CSP. The first version of the index, used until the start of the 2021 school year, was calculated on the data of the DEPP panel of pupils who entered sixth grade in 2007. For these 35,000 students on the panel, there is rich information on their living conditions to establish the PCS-IPS transition table. At the start of the 2022 school year, this table of passage was updated by mobilising data from the DEPP panel of pupils who entered CP in 2011. Once the parents' CSPs are provided, which is the case for the vast majority of second-level students, it is sufficient to apply these reference values and consider this new variable as an index, that is to say, quantitatively. The social level of a school is assessed through the calculation of the average PSI of the students who attend it. It should be recalled that, like any synthetic index, it is a simplified summary of reality, which cannot by itself account for the complexity of the socio-economic and cultural situation of pupils in an establishment. As the IPS is based on the PCS declared by families and registered by establishments, it is subject to a certain margin of error: Thus, it is advisable not to over-interpret differences of 3 points or less regarding the average IPS of schools. Finally, it should be noted that the methodology for calculating the index has changed, leading to a break in series from the start of the 2022 school year: the reference values of the index have changed and pupils whose CSPs of both parents are uninformed are no longer included in the calculation of their school’s average CPI (transition table available as an attachment below). **_Field_** The file provides the average IPS of schools in France under the supervision of the National Education Authority, public and private under contract, calculated from data from the start of the N school year. The calculation of the IPS of the schools is made from the pupils of CM2, whose PCS are known when they are in 6th grade. It corresponds more exactly to the average of the SPI of former pupils of the school over the last five years. In addition, IPSs are provided only for schools that have had at least 25 CM2 students in the last five years. As a result, kindergartens are excluded from the scope since they do not have pupils of CM2. The file also provides the cumulative enrolment of the school over the last five years from which the SPI is calculated. In the file made available, each line corresponds to a school for a given school year. Amendments: a first file on the IPS of schools was submitted on 05/10/2022. It presented the IPS of schools with more than 5 fifth graders in the last five years. **_Reference_** Rocher, T. (2016). Construction of a social position index for pupils. _Education & Training_, DEPP, 90, pp.5-27. Dauphant F., Evain F., Guillerm M., Simon C., Rocher T. (2023), The Social Position Index (SPI): a statistical tool to describe social inequalities between institutions. _Depp information note No 23.16._ Find out more about the Social Position Index: [ https://www.education.gouv.fr/l-indice-de-position-sociale-ips-357755] (https://www.education.gouv.fr/l-indice-de-position-sociale-ips-357755) __