Factors that can influence academic performance

School marks may vary considerably from school to school and from class to class for various reasons. Here are some examples of factors that can influence academic performance:

• parental support, availability and financial situation, as well as the family’s standard of living: studies carried out in Québec and elsewhere have shown that the academic achievement of students from socio-economically disadvantaged areas is generally lower
• the geographic location of the educational institution: for example, the environment does not support the learning of English as a second language; the conditions for learning are not the same throughout Québec.
• the proportion of students in a school whose mother tongue is not the language of instruction
• the diversity in student profiles within a group
• the grouping, in some schools, of students with major learning difficulties or psychosocial integration difficulties and who are in special classes
• different practices related to admission: some educational institutions take all students, while others base admission on past academic achievement or performance on aptitude tests