Relationship between Leadership Behaviour of Principals and Students’ Academic Achievement

The study aims to investigate the relationship of leadership behaviour of secondary school principals and academic achievement of students in public and private sector in Punjab, Pakistan. The study also explores if there is any relationship between five subscales of leadership behaviour and students’ achievement. Moreover, leadership behavior of public and private secondary school principals has been compared. Finally, a gender based comparison of leadership behaviour of the secondary school leaders is made.A survey to define leadership behavior has been conducted from 64 secondary school principals using Leadership Practices Inventory comprising of 30 items at 6 point Likert scale. Students’ achievement score of annual examination has been taken from the Board of Intermediate & Secondary Education. Pearson Correlation Coefficient analysis technique is used to measure the correlation between leadership behaviour of principals and students’ achievement. Whereas, t-test statistics is used to find out the difference between leadership behavior of male and female principals as well as the difference in leadership behaviour of public and private school principals.Results show that there is a significant correlation between leadership behaviour of principals and students’ achievement. Subscales of principals’ leadership behaviour like Model the Way, Inspired the Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Encourage to Act, and Encourage the Heart are found significantly correlated with students’ achievement. It is evident from the results that no significant difference has been found in the leadership behaviour of principals on the basis of gender and private or public schools. Although there are many studies on relationship of leadership behaviour and students’ achievement, but research on interplay between students’ achievement and subscales of leadership behaviour is limited. The study reveals valuable findings regarding leadership behavior and its relationship with students’ achievement in the Pakistani context. Key words; Leadership Behaviour, Students’ Achievement, Public and Private Schools, Male and Female principals.