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Abstract
Nigeria's secondary school curriculum reforms increasingly promote learner-centred approaches, yet evidence on how these strategies relate to measured achievement in South-East Nigerian classrooms remains fragmented and largely drawn from small single-school experiments. This study evaluated the contribution of five innovative curriculum strategies, project-based learning, ICT-integrated/flipped instruction, collaborative learning, formative assessment and feedback, and inquiry-based learning, to the academic performance of Senior Secondary School Two (SS2) students in Enugu State. Anchored in constructivist, experiential learning, cognitive load, and diffusion of innovations theories, the study adopted a cross-sectional correlational survey design with a stratified comparative component. A priori power analysis indicated a minimum of 580 students; allowing for clustering and non-return, 888 students were sampled from 24 public schools selected by stratified random sampling across the six education zones, and 853 provided complete data (96.1%). Data were collected with the Innovative Curriculum Strategies Exposure Questionnaire (α = .84-.87 across dimensions, α = .92 overall) and a 50-item Mathematics and English Achievement Test (KR-20 = .92). Multiple regression with cluster-robust standard errors showed that the five strategies jointly explained 31.4% of the variance in achievement, F(5, 847) = 77.49, p < .001, f² = .46, with formative assessment and feedback (β = .21) and collaborative learning (β = .19) as the strongest unique predictors. Students in high-implementation schools outperformed peers in low-implementation schools by 12.35 points, t(850.92) = 8.69, p < .001, Hedges' g = .59. School location moderated the exposure-achievement relationship (ΔR² = .021, f² = .031), with a steeper slope in urban than in rural schools. The findings support system-wide, well-resourced adoption of learner-centred strategies, with deliberate support for rural schools.