The school principal's role in determining the academic achievement of students has been an agenda of controversy among scholars in the field of educational leadership. Several studies, have been carried out, over the years, to resolve this controversy. However, the findings so far have not produced consistent outcomes pointing to the need for further research in differing socio-cultural settings. The main objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between secondary school principals' leadership effectiveness as perceived by secondary school teachers and students' academic achievement West Hararghe Zone, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia. For this, the study employed correlation design comprising of eight randomly sampled secondary schools. In this study, a total of 190 teachers were selected using a proportional random sampling technique to fill in a standardized questionnaire on the leadership effectiveness of their school principals. Out of 3321 students who sat for Grade 10 national examinations in 2014, the Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) scores of 440 students was selected from the sampled schools using proportional random sampling technique. A standardized questionnaire with five-point Likert scales was used to measure the leadership effectiveness of principals whereas CGPA of students on Grade 10 national examination was used to measure students' academic achievement. The findings of the study showed that the experience of principals was not significantly correlated with their corresponding leadership effectiveness. The findings also showed that the principals level of education was significantly negatively correlated with principals' leadership effectiveness (R =-0.866, p < 0.05). Furthermore, the study findings showed that there was no significant correlation between a school principal's leadership effectiveness and students' academic achievement. The latter finding implies that there was no direct relationship between school leadership and students' academic achievement. In addition, the findings suggest that the relationship between principals' level of education, service year, and leadership effectiveness was not direct. The researchers, therefore, recommended further research on a large scale and in different contexts to come up with more valid and generalizable finding.

Abstract:The purpose of this study was to assess the extent to which educational leaders in the western cluster public universities of Ethiopia are ethical. Ethical leadership variables such as fairness, equity, multicultural competence, modeling ethical behaviors and altruism are considered in describing the ethical behaviors of the leaders. Descriptive survey research design with quantitative method was employed for it fits the purpose of the study. Data was collected from instructors and educational leaders holding various leadership positions in the sample universities. Accordingly, 107 instructors, 12 department heads, 6 college deans, 2 academic quality assurance officers, 3 ethical officers, 1 vice president and 1 president participated in the study. Questionnaires were mainly used to collect data from the respondents. T-test and ANOVA, among other data analysis tools, were used to analyze the data. The results of the study revealed that leaders in the sample universities practice ethical leadership moderately. The leaders failed to demonstrate the ethical leadership practices to the expected level. They have been found to demonstrate low multicultural competence, low at altruism, and low at modeling ethical behavior. And hence, it could be concluded that the educational leaders in public universities failed to meet the standards and expectations of ethical leadership. As a result, it is recommended that the academic leaders in the public universities need to be provided with leadership development opportunities. Moreover, public universities can establish leadership development programs that will enable leaders to continually update themselves and practice ethical leadership to the expected level.

Multicultural Competences of higher education leaders refer directly to the multicultural knowledge, attitudes and skills of the leaders which is the focus of the present study. The demographic changes and the subsequent diversity in Ethiopian HEIs strongly demands the HEIs to be multiculturally competent, their leaders should in turn have the necessary multicultural competencies. In line with this, the multicultural competences of the educational leaders of Ethiopian public universities were investigated. The mixed-methods research approach was used in the study, including semistructured interviews and questionnaires. Academic and administrative officials, office workers and teachers were included in the study as sources of data. Multi-stage, simple random and purposive sampling techniques were employed to select 316 participants for the study. Inferential statistics including mean, standard division, t-tests and one-way ANOVA were used to analyze the quantitative data. The university leaders, academic and administrative staff did not have a considered perspective on pluralism. In addition, there were limited spaces and opportunities for the staff to develop skills and experience in the management of difference as an important aspect of their work and with their interaction with other members of the university community. The staff associations were weak and poorly equipped to provide or promote opportunities for skills development in the management of diversity. Lecturers did not generally receive any preparation on managing within a multicultural setting. The findings confirm the position that the need to prepare university leaders with multicultural knowledge, skills, and dispositions. It is imperative that university leadership adopt multicultural competence as an essential competency within their profession, continue to seek out opportunities to further enhance personal multicultural competence, and infuse it into their daily practices.