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.
