The Influence of Leadership Styles on Students Academic Achievement in Secondary Schools: A Case of Selected Secondary Schools in Morogoro Municipality

This study, investigated the influence of leadership styles on secondary school students’ academic performance in Morogoro, Tanzania. Tasks were to: explore the commonly used leadership style, establish benchmark practices on leadership styles that can lead to students’ academic performance and to establish the relationship between school heads’ leadership styles and students academic performance. This study employed cross sectional survey research design whereby data were collected through questionnaires. The data collected were analyzed by using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software. Chi- square test T-test was employed in testing association between leadership styles and students academic performance. The findings established that democratic leadership styles mostly influence students academic achievement/performance (R-value was 0.932), implying that there is a strong and positive influence and significant at p=0.004 level of democratic leadership style on students academic achievement. For Laissez-faire leadership style, the relationship revealed negative influence on students academic performance and was very weak (R-value of 0.1) and not significant (p=0.072). Autocratic leadership style, although the relationship was very strong (R=0.546, the relationship was insignificant with p value = 0.08. Based on the findings of the study, it is recommended that educational administrators should ensure that head teachers are given appropriate orientations before they are appointed as school heads. And, head teachers are asked to use more democratic leadership style if they want students to achieve or excel good academic performance