This chapter provides an overview of the methods currently used in France to assess students’ mathematics learning, of the changes occurring in this area, and the rationale for them. As in any country, the methods of assessment used in France are part of the country’s general educational culture. In order to understand them, it is helpful to know about the characteristics of this culture. I briefly describe these cultural characteristics, before discussing the methods of assessment. These include both internal assessments done by teachers in classrooms and external assessments.1 In this chapter, I will focus on the external assessments, in particular, on two different kinds of assessment: the Baccalauréat, which is the national examination at the end of high school, and the national diagnostic assessment at the beginning of middle school. Then, after briefly discussing current research on alternative modes of assessment relying on technology, I end this chapter with some general comments on assessment issues.

Students in France begin secondary education at age eleven, after two to three years of kindergarten and five years of elementary school. Secondary education is comprised of two parts: first, a four-year program called collège (which I will call “middle school”), and then the lycée (which I will call “high school”) beginning at grade 10. Compulsory education ends at age sixteen, and thus includes the first year of high school. Prior to high school, the curriculum is the same for all students. In high school, there are three main streams: the general and the technological streams which are three-year programs, and the vocational which includes two successive two-year programs. At present, approximately half of the high school population is in a technological or vocational stream. Each stream is further differentiated. For the general stream for instance, differentiation occurs at grade 11. Then students can choose between three different orientations: Literature (L), Economic Sciences (ES) and Sciences (S); at grade 12 (the last year of high school), they have also to choose a speciality. In S for instance, this can be mathematics, physical sciences, or biology (see Figure 1). The different high school programs all end with a national examination: the Baccalauréat (mentioned above) which allows students to enter post-secondary education. However, some post-secondary programs such as the CPGE (specific classes preparing students for national competitions for the most prestigious higher institutions such as the Ecole Polytechnique and the Ecoles Normales Supérieures, as well as for many engineering and business schools) select their students on the basis of their academic results in high school, before knowing their results for the Baccalauréat.