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A Chartbook essay by Adam Tooze uses OECD PISA data to argue that France has weak reading outcomes and worsening performance among both high- and low-performing students. It frames French student protests as a warning about a broader post-pandemic decline across rich countries, while noting the supplied material does not establish the protests’ precise cause or provide independently verifiable survey documentation.
Adam Tooze’s Chartbook 480 argues that student protests in France are a warning about declining education outcomes, citing figures it attributes to OECD PISA data for 2025. The essay says French students’ reading performance trails the OECD average and that results have worsened at both the top and bottom of the performance range, while placing the trend within a wider post-COVID decline among rich-country peers.
The essay presents three comparisons in reading: the median French student score is below the OECD average; France ranks seventh from the bottom among 24 countries for performance by students in the lowest 10 percent; and the top 10 percent perform less strongly than the reputation of France’s elite secondary schools might suggest. These are claims reported by Chartbook from a table it says Brookings compiled using OECD survey data. The source material does not include the table itself or the underlying scores.
Tooze also compares France with the United States, saying US results are higher at the median, among the lowest-performing students and among the highest-performing students. In students’ reported sense of belonging at school, he says France fares better than the United States, but still does not perform especially well. The essay characterizes France’s overall results as mediocre, with particularly poor outcomes for students at the bottom of the distribution.
For change over time, the report says the gap between the highest- and lowest-performing students in France has not widened dramatically over the past decade, unlike the polarization it describes in US mathematics results. But that apparent stability masks declines across the French distribution. Chartbook says the proportion of French 15-year-olds who were out of school or barely literate rose from 28.6 percent in 2015 to 40.8 percent in 2025, while the share performing at a very high level fell from 11.4 percent to 4 percent. It says most of the deterioration in those reading-related figures occurred between the 2022 and 2025 surveys.
Why French Protests Reach Beyond France
The argument matters because it treats the protests not only as a response to conditions in French schools, but also as a prompt to examine a wider decline in learning. If the figures cited by Chartbook are accurate, worsening outcomes affect students at both ends of the performance range, rather than being limited to those already struggling. That has consequences for educational opportunity and for the ability of school systems to support students with different needs.
Tooze’s broader point is that France’s difficulties should not be understood in isolation. He says post-pandemic deterioration in mathematics has affected countries across the OECD, with particularly high shares of students performing very poorly or being out of school. The essay therefore interprets the French demonstrations as a possible wake-up call for collective action on education. That is the author’s analysis, not evidence that protesters themselves share one motive or that a particular policy response has been agreed.
The comparison also complicates simple national rankings. France’s results are weak on the measures discussed, but the source says the direction of change is concerning across peer countries too. Readers should distinguish the cited test-score trends from claims about why they occurred: the essay points to the pandemic and accumulated neglect or exclusion as possible context, but the supplied material does not establish a single cause.
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PISA Trends Behind the Argument
PISA is the OECD’s international assessment of 15-year-olds’ skills. Chartbook says its comparison uses reading and mathematics indicators from the 2025 round, with results presented in a table compiled by Brookings. The essay compares both the position of French students relative to other countries and changes in French performance across survey years.
In the account provided, the past decade shows a gradual fall in France’s highest performance in mathematics, with the decline visible across the 2018 and 2022 surveys. The sharp rise in low mathematics performance, by contrast, is described as especially pronounced after 2022. For reading, Chartbook highlights the movement in the shares at the low and high ends between 2015 and 2025, saying most of the decline occurred in the latest interval.
The source places these changes against the disruption of COVID-19, arguing that the post-pandemic slump is not unique to France. It does not provide detailed country-by-country results, information about testing conditions, or a breakdown of the factors behind the shifts. Its central case is comparative: France’s schools show serious weaknesses, but the wider pattern calls for attention beyond France.
What the Data Cannot Explain
The material supplied does not identify the student groups involved, the size or locations of the protests, their dates, or their stated demands. It also does not establish whether the demonstrations were caused by school performance, a specific policy dispute, or other grievances. The relationship between the protests and the trends discussed in the essay is presented as interpretation, not demonstrated causation.
The source refers to 2025 PISA data and a Brookings-compiled table, but does not reproduce the table, list scores, or explain its methods. It also does not provide details about school attendance in the figures it describes as students being “out of school or barely literate.” Readers cannot assess the precise calculation or separate those categories from the supplied account alone. The contribution of COVID-related disruption, long-term policy choices and other factors to the decline remains unresolved.
The Next Questions for Schools
The source does not announce a government response, a protest schedule or a forthcoming policy decision. The next developments to watch are any statements from French education authorities and protest representatives clarifying the demonstrations’ demands, alongside publication or independent examination of the underlying PISA figures.
Further data would help show whether the reported declines persist in later assessments and how they vary across regions, schools and student groups. For now, Chartbook’s conclusion is a call for a broader debate about education: the essay argues that France’s figures deserve attention, while the post-pandemic trend it describes makes the issue relevant to other countries as well.
Key Questions
What is the main development in Chartbook 480?
Adam Tooze’s essay links French student protests to weak and worsening school outcomes, and argues that the pattern should concern other OECD countries too.
What does the essay say about French reading results?
Chartbook says the median French student performs below the OECD average, France ranks seventh from the bottom among 24 countries for its lowest-performing 10 percent, and the top 10 percent score less strongly than expected.
Did outcomes worsen across the whole French student population?
The essay says the performance gap did not widen dramatically, but results declined at both the high and low ends. It reports that the share of 15-year-olds out of school or barely literate rose from 28.6 percent in 2015 to 40.8 percent in 2025, while the share performing at a very high level fell from 11.4 percent to 4 percent.
Does the source explain why the protests began?
No. The supplied material gives no dates, locations or organizers’ demands, and does not establish that the protests were caused by the test-score trends discussed in the essay.
Is the decline described as unique to France?
No. Tooze says the post-COVID rise in poor performance is visible across OECD countries. The source does not supply detailed figures for each country, so the comparison cannot be independently checked from the material provided.
Source: rss
