Grading School Behavior: Tensions in Justice Principles at School

School life grading has been introduced in France in 2006 as a tool for the control of school violence. The debates it raises about principles of justice reveal the current tensions among professionals (teachers, assistant principals, principals) who have to agree upon the grading. Beyond the usual difficulties of evaluation, school life grading meets with a number of obstacles requiring case-specific arbitration, which, although indicative of the current trend towards localised and individualised response to school problems, potentially threaten the whole scheme.