Do principal leadership characteristics affect student success on the Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards

The purpose of this study was to examine the leadership of secondary school principals and its relation to student success on the AIMS. The study focuses on the nature of school leadership which identifies two constructs: leadership of people and purpose. Leadership characteristics, principal characteristics and school characteristics were analyzed with respect to reading gains, writing gains, and math gains on the Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards (AIMS) to determine their relationships with student achievement gains. A total of 70 high school principals were surveyed in Arizona. Pearson Product moment correlations and multiple regression analyses were used to examine these relationships. Certain principal personal characteristics were found to significantly relate to school achievement gains. In addition school characteristics such as Free/Reduced lunch and school size were found to be highly related to student gains.