Has the "Ambition Success Networks" Educational Program Achieved its Ambition ?

This paper evaluates the French RAR program (Réseaux Ambition Réussite or Ambition Success Networks), a junior high school program started in 2006 which intended to concentrate means and funds on well-chosen disadvantaged junior high schools. We use the criteria of eligibility to estimate a regression discontinuity model. For evaluated junior high schools, the increase in per-pupil teaching hours, and the decrease in class size are disappointing. Our results also suggest that the program may have had a negative effect on teacher and pupil enrollment. Both the proportion of older teachers and the proportion of poorly qualified teachers have increased and the pupils’ achievement has decreased in Grade 9, the final year of junior high school. The RAR program has increased the disparity of teachers’ characteristics and of pupils’ ability between schools.