How should we interpret New Zealand’s 2019 top 50 secondary school rankings?

New Zealand secondary schools offer 3 curricula or examination systems: New Zealand’s own NCEA examinations, Cambridge examinations (CIE) and the International Baccalaureate (IB).

 

New Zealand secondary schools can also be classified in various ways: private schools, state schools and church schools with mixed public and private arrangements, as well as co-educational and single-sex schools. Chinese parents in New Zealand unfamiliar with the system often find it bewildering.

 

Crimson’s rankings aim to give parents a clear reference framework when choosing a secondary school for their children. With a focus on university admission rates and scholarships, the list considers all three education systems—NCEA, CIE and IB—and can help guide parents’ school choices.

 

1. Private schools achieve the strongest results, with girls’ schools particularly prominent.
2. Single-sex schools perform better than co-educational secondary schools.
3. Schools with a church affiliation also perform creditably.

 

Girls’ schools make up only 12% of New Zealand secondary schools, yet 18 appear in the top 50, accounting for 36% of the list. Boys’ schools represent 9% of all New Zealand secondary schools but claim 11 places in the top 50 (22%). This shows that single-sex schools do indeed achieve better results than co-educational secondary schools.

 

The list also shows that most of New Zealand’s leading secondary schools are in Auckland. Outside Auckland, only Wellington and Christchurch have a handful of secondary schools in the top 50.

 

Metro magazine also published an Auckland secondary school ranking last year.

 

Some schools near the top of Metro’s rankings placed lower in the Crimson QS rankings, while some lower-ranked Metro schools climbed several places in the Crimson QS list. What caused these differences? The answer lies in the ranking criteria.

 

Metro’s criteria focus on academic performance, primarily university admission rates, NCEA, CIE and IB pass rates, and scholarship success rates. The Crimson QS rankings assess academic performance alongside other measures.

 

Crimson QS ranking criteria

 

Academic performance (70%) primarily includes:

1. The proportion of students receiving NZQA, CIE or IB awards (35%).
2. The proportion of Year 12 and Year 13 students gaining University Entrance through NCEA, CIE or IB (5%).
3. The proportion receiving “Excellence” awards in NCEA, CIE and IB (5%).
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Diversity, equity and process (15%)

 

The diversity, equity and process indicators assess a school’s academic environment and the diversity of its student body. They primarily include:

1. Keywords relating to cultural diversity in Education Review Office evaluations (25%)
2. Ethnic diversity (75%)

 

 

Extracurricular activities (15%)

 

The extracurricular activities indicators measure whether a school offers students sufficient educational opportunities and prepares them for achievement at university after leaving school. Data was gathered through online research, surveys and publicly accessible databases examining each school’s extracurricular activities and admission outcomes for Ivy League and other top 20 universities. Schools’ sporting options, performing arts and co-curricular options, and university admission outcomes are weighted equally. The main measures are:

1. The number of sporting options available (5%).
2. The arts and co-curricular options available (5%).
3. The proportion of students admitted to universities in the QS top 20 or the other 8 US Ivy League universities (5%)

 

The Crimson QS rankings therefore quantify school performance, assessing equity and excellence in student outcomes, learning conditions, culturally responsive learning environments and organisational conditions. They also comprehensively assess the diversity of schools’ main ethnic groups and their extracurricular activities.

 

For example, St Cuthbert’s, the girls’ school ranked first overall, offers both NCEA and IB. It ranks among the leaders academically, but places only 40 in diversity.

 

Crimson founder Jamie Beaton said that Crimson’s rankings cover all the criteria used by leading universities when admitting students.

 

This article was edited and published with the authorisation of Crimson Education.

 

About the author

Monica Li (Li Yijuan)

Chinese-language editor-in-chief, Marketing Department, Crimson Education

She holds a Bachelor of Economics from Capital University of Economics and Business and a Master of Public Administration (MPA) from Peking University. A former reporter for the New Zealand Chinese Herald, she has written hundreds of popular original articles on New Zealand education, the economy, property, social trends and other fields.

During her two years in the education sector, she has focused on local education in New Zealand and Australia. Her articles offering a professional perspective on education in New Zealand, Australia, the UK and the US have been warmly received by local Chinese parents and republished by several well-known local media outlets.