The History and Evolution of Numerical Grading in the French Educational System

The Paradox of the 1890 Decree and the Introduction of the 20-Point Scale

The fundamental institution of the numerical grade on a scale of $0$ to $20$ in French secondary education for monthly and quarterly compositions was established by the decree of $5 \, \text{July} \, 1890$, signed by Léon Bourgeois, the Minister of Public Instruction. Paradoxically, the same decree expressed profound skepticism regarding the value of such precise grading. It questioned whether a conscientious professor was wasting time and effort by attempting to find gradations where none truly existed. The text argued that balancing different types of merits as if they were matters of state—which they often became for competing students and their families—was a futile exercise because these merits are often of a different nature and thus lack a common measure.

In stark contrast to this administrative skepticism, the poet Charles Péguy offered a dream-like tribute to the old professors who took these precise rankings with the utmost seriousness. He cited the example of men like Georges Edet, for whom a prize was recently founded at the Lycée Henri IV. Péguy suggested that such men would labor more intensely to determine if a student's work was worth $12.25$ or $12.5$ and whether a student should be ranked $13^{th}$ or tied for $14^{th}$ than government officials might labor over the fate of an entire army corps in a colonial expedition. For these educators, the minute classification of a student's copy was a matter of professional honor and a perpetual manufacture of virtue, which they believed to be the sole strength of republics.

The Critique of the Evaluation Machine and the Culture of Averaging

Roger-François Gauthier, a former Inspector General of Administration within the National Education system, has raised disturbing questions about the current state of school evaluation, suggesting the "machine" has gone mad. While the French educational system appears to idealize and even sacralize knowledge, it relies on the strange and complacent tool of calculating averages. This calculation occurs not only within a single discipline but across entirely disparate subjects. This practice leads to a phenomenon where the failure to master a fundamental competency in one discipline is effectively hidden or erased because it is compensated for by a higher grade in another subject. This system reveals an extraordinary indifference to whether a student has actually acquired specific knowledge, skills, or behaviors, as the primary goal remains socio-scholastic classification.

Historical Perspectives and the Bourgeoisie's Need for Emulation

By $1900$, the Direction of Secondary Education observed with some embarrassment that France was nearly the only country where compositions played such a dominant role and where grading was performed on a scale of $0$ to $20$. Foreigners viewed these customs with more surprise than envy. However, the authorities were reluctant to break with a tradition that, while inherited from the Jesuits, seemed to align with the French national character. They argued that the system had the advantages of its disadvantages and should be corrected rather than abolished.

Ferdinand Buisson, in his $1911$ work, the New Dictionary of Pedagogy and Primary Instruction, argued that the concern for pre-eminence through a $20$-point scale was a "necessary evil" specifically for the education of the bourgeoisie class. He argued that for the millions of children in primary schools, normal emulation should stimulate effort through the master's approval without children needing to exclude others or worry about achieving a higher degree of success than their peers. Octave Gréard, presiding over a sub-commission in $1900$, also sought to correct the abuse of individual comparison and over-excited emulation, especially for younger children, suggesting that the grade itself should be emphasized more than the student's rank in class.

The Sociopolitical Context of Prices and Accessits

The 1890 decree's mention of the $20$-point scale was intrinsically linked to the awarding of prizes and "accessits" (honorable mentions). Public secondary education remained fee-paying even after communal schools became free in $1882$, and it was primarily attended by the bourgeoisie. This social class was fond of the prestige associated with prizes and sensitive to the public nature of award ceremonies, especially in the context of intense rivalry between public and private institutions following the Ferry laws. Consequently, it was deemed necessary that these awards be attributed in an incontestable, "mathematical" fashion. The numerical grades provided an illusion of a "unit of account," allowing for the calculation of averages and even "averages of averages" to determine general rankings for honors like the "Prize of Excellence," a process that would be theoretically impossible with letter grades.

The Jesuit Origins and Early Numerical Systems

The roots of numerical notation in France can be traced back to the Jesuits in the $16^{th}$ and $17^{th}$ centuries. Within their elaborate system of emulation, they codified student assessment in the famous Ratio Studiorum, using a scale of $1$ to $6$ to adjust the composition of classes. This early form of continuous assessment included specific instructions for teachers: for instance, marking all errors with a red pencil and placing the numbers $1$, $2$, or $3$ next to them to provide a transparent account of the assessment's equity to students or tutors.

This tradition of using numerical scales continued into the primary school system. On $25 \, \text{August} \, 1884$, instructions from the Minister of Public Instruction regarding monthly homework notebooks specified that teachers should correct work in the margins and provide a grade on a scale of $1$ to $10$ to facilitate comparison. However, these same instructions warned against the dangers of competition, urging parents and students to measure progress against the student's own past performance rather than against others, thereby valuing effort over mere success. Additionally, by the decree of $16 \, \text{June} \, 1880$, the primary school certificate exams (orthography, writing, arithmetic, and composition) were each graded out of $10$, with a passing average required for admission to oral exams.

Evolution of the Baccalauréat and the 1968 Reforms

The numerical scale was not always a feature of major French examinations. During the first half of the $19^{th}$ century, the Baccalauréat jury used a ballot box (boulier) for oral exams lasting $30$ to $45$ minutes. Juries cast colored balls: red indicated a favorable opinion, black an unfavorable one, and white meant the candidate's fate depended on the other members. It was only during the Second Empire that these votes were translated into figures on a scale of $0$ to $5$. The $0$ to $20$ scale appeared in $1890$, coinciding with the introduction of the "modern" Baccalauréat which featured various elective series and written components. This history demonstrates that numerical grades and averages are not a prerequisite for formal certification, as evidenced by the first fifty years of the Baccalauréat and the modern doctoral degree.

In the wake of the student protests of March $1968$, the Amiens colloquium chaired by Alain Peyrefitte challenged the traditional system of prizes and numerical grading. On $6 \, \text{January} \, 1969$, the Minister of National Education Edgar Faure issued a circular criticizing the "linear ranking" of students based on points or half-points. He cited docimological studies from before $1930$ that proved the illusionary nature of such precise grading. Faure argued for the abandonment of the $0$ to $20$ scale in favor of a more rational and less pretentious five-level qualitative scale: "Very Satisfactory," "Satisfactory," "Medium," "Insufficient," and "Very Insufficient," often represented by the letters $A$, $B$, $C$, $D$, and $E$. While prizes and monthly compositions were eventually abolished, the $20$-point scale persisted, returning officially for exam classes in $1971$ and eventually saturating the entire secondary system.