Excello est membre d’Agir pour l’éducation

This article is based on the presentation of “Agir pour l’Éducation” by the Collège de France website.

Launched in 2017, the Excello program aims to develop, test, and distribute innovative teaching tools in schools. These tools foster regular reading and math practice tailored to students’ needs, building on the work of Stanislas Dehaene, professor of Experimental Cognitive Psychology. His research explores the brain mechanisms behind core cognitive functions (consciousness, reasoning, language, reading, and math) and how children learn.

Excello’s main focus is creating Kalulu, a reading method grounded in decoding grapheme–phoneme combinations. Kalulu includes booklets, games, and a mobile/tablet app, all designed to build vocabulary as well. Since 2022, the method has been tested in 100 classrooms in the Versailles district. Starting in the 2024 school year, teachers nationwide can opt to use Kalulu. International adaptations are underway, and further research projects—especially on how students learn and grasp math—are also in progress.

Since 2022, Excello has been part of “Agir pour l’éducation” an initiative born from the determination of Collège de France professors to address the crisis in the French education system.

Born in 2022 from the desire of Collège de France professors to act in response to the crisis situation facing the French education system, the initiative Agir pour l’éducation – Un enjeu scientifique pour la société a pour ambition de placer la recherche scientifique au service de l’école et de continuer à contribuer à faire vivre la promesse républicaine de l’éducation pour tous. Leur ambition : croiser les savoirs et faire avancer la recherche pour mieux comprendre les difficultés auxquelles sont confrontés les élèves, concevoir des outils pédagogiques scientifiquement éprouvés, sensibiliser aux sciences et former des citoyens éclairés.

For roughly 30 years, France has experienced a worrying decline in student performance, particularly in reading and math, coupled with growing social inequalities in academic success and gaps in social-emotional skills. In a fast-changing, tech-driven 21st century, effective lifelong learning has never been more important for inspiring youth and equipping them with the tools to understand and act in the world.

Through “Agir pour l’Éducation,” the Collège de France aims to study, advise, and take action in all fields of its professors’ expertise. The initiative has two parts: a public conference series on learning and teaching methods, and research projects and educational actions led by Collège de France professors:

• Professor Philippe Aghion, Chair of the Economics of Institutions of Innovation and Growth, and his initiative with "The Innovation Campus for High Schools";
• Professor Stanislas Dehaene, chair of Experimental Cognitive Psychology, and his action "Excello", whose laboratory develops educational tools for reading and mathematics based on cognitive sciences;
• Professors Jean-Luc Fournet, chair of Written Culture of Late Antiquity and Byzantine Papyrology, and William Marx, chair of Comparative Literature, who wish to promote the practice of rhetoric and theater to help students defend a point of view, develop a better knowledge of themselves and others;
• Professor Stéphane Mallat (Data Science), who leads “MathAData” for high school math teaching—featuring computer-based data challenges—and also takes part in the “MathC2+” program.
• Professor Pierre-Michel Menger, chair Sociology of Creative Work, whose program "Diagnostiquer pour agir" analyzes the academic and university trajectories of French students in mathematical sciences.
• Professor Esther Duflo, chair of Poverty and Public Policy, specialist in field experiments in the educational field.

« Je ne vois aucune fatalité à ce que notre éducation nationale soit abonnée aux mauvaises performances — mais il y a urgence d’une mobilisation de tous, chercheurs, parents, enseignants, afin d’aider notre école à concilier rigueur, bienveillance et efficacité pédagogique, pour retrouver les chemins de la réussite. » (Pr Stanislas Dehaene, chaire de Psychologie cognitive expérimentale – Porteur de l’initiative Agir pour l’éducation)

The initiative is backed by the Collège de France Foundation and its patrons.