Principals perceived leadership effectiveness and its relationship with academic achievement among students in secondary school: The Ethiopian experience

Abstract

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.

Effectiveness of Principals’ Leadership Styles in School Improvement and Students’ Academic Achievement in Government Secondary Schools of Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia

“…In Ethiopian context, as available literatures show, some researchers studied about principals' school leadership in different ways. Among those Feyisa, Ferede, & Amsale (2015) found that there was no significant association between a school principal's leadership effectiveness and students' academic achievement and thus was no direct relationship between school leadership and students' academic achievement. This study covered only a zone of Oromia regional state and it was devoted to analyzing the association between the principals' effectiveness and students' academic achievement by employing quantitative research methods only.…”

Principals’ leadership strategy to improve “link and match” quality for vocational education

“…It will ultimately aff ect the increase in motivation and work performance of all school components. Teachers and staff are motivated to improve their performance if given an appropriate appreciation for implementing their duties (Dessalegn et al, 2016). Rewardbased work performance aff ects improving the performance of all school components.…”

“…The form of a decisive leadership role, for example, in the cases of this study, is how he develops his vision and mission, leadership values, reward systems, and social and emotional relationships to form a strong education quality in various school programs and activities-the principal, to develop a quality culture at each of these schools. For example, improving the quality of school services, extracurricular services, and school governance services; improving the quality of educational resources; improving the quality of teachers and staff , and improving the quality of educational facilities/infrastructure (Dessalegn, Bekalu, & Frew, 2016).…”

Impact of Principal Leadership Styles on the Effectiveness of Schools: A Revisiting Review of the Literature (2018-2022)

“…According to their study, a transformational leader promotes the expansion of teams and organizations while simultaneously raising followers' aspirations for success and self-improvement. These components, which are sometimes individual concern, intellectual stimulation, inspiring drive, and idealistic influence are collectively known as the "Four I's" [58,59], (Leithwood, 1994). Later, this was made available, refined, and adjusted for use in a classroom (Leithwood & Jantzi, 2006).…”