From Immediate Gains to Sustained Outcomes: A Longitudinal Quasi-Experimental Evaluation of a Smart School Management System in Nigerian Secondary Schools

Digital platforms combining academic communication, performance monitoring and administrative functions are increasingly common in secondary education. An earlier one-group pretest-posttest evaluation of a custom-built Smart School Management System (SSMS) found a significant rise in academic performance, but a two-point comparison could not show whether the gain persisted, grew, or faded. This study extends that evaluation into a longitudinal, one-group quasi-experimental design spanning five measurement waves. The cohort of 438 students from six secondary schools (three public, three private) was tracked from a pre-implementation baseline (T0) through four post-implementation waves (T1 to T4), using a linear mixed-effects model with time as a fixed effect, students nested within schools as random effects, and school type and academic orientation as moderators. Performance rose sharply from baseline (M = 59.51) to T1 (M = 68.45) and stayed stable through T2 and T3, before a small but significant decline at T4 (M = 67.83) relative to T1-T3 (p < .001); T4 remained well above baseline (+8.26 points, p < .001, d = 0.65). The overall time effect was significant (p < .001), rejecting H01. The trajectory differed modestly by school type (p = .031), with public schools showing a steeper early gain, but not by academic orientation (p = .078). The improvement was largely sustained across four terms rather than a brief effect, with only a modest late decline consistent with partial novelty fade. A sensitivity analysis excluding two students who withdrew before T4 left all key estimates materially unchanged (time effect, school-type and academic-orientation, interactions, and T4 contrasts all shifted by 0.01-0.03 points), confirming the T4 decline was not driven by these withdrawals.

Smart School Management System; longitudinal design; quasi-experimental study; academic performance; educational technology; secondary schools; Nigeria.

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