Key Findings

The report finds:

• There were not educationally meaningful differences - either positive or negative - between intermediate schools and other school types in terms of student outcomes.
• Secondary and composite schools were associated with slightly higher NCEA attainment and performance than intermediate schools.
• Full primary and middle schools were associated with slightly lower NCEA attainment than intermediate schools (but only at Level 3 NCEA).
• The effects of school type on attendance in Year 8 were generally the opposite of the effects on NCEA attainment and performance.
• Some of the small differences between school types appear to be explained by intermediate schools requiring more structural moves than full primary, secondary, or composite schools.
• But there are also differences between school types that are left over after adjusting for structural moves. Some of these differences slightly benefit intermediate schools over other types of schools. We don’t have the data to determine what might be causing these differences.
• While this study is the first of its kind, it is limited because we do not have data on the abilities of students before the middle years, so cannot directly measure learning progress.