The Effects of Leadership Styles on Academic Performance: A Case Study of Ibadan North Local Government Area, Oyo State, Nigeria

Leadership plays a pivotal role in shaping the overall success of educational institutions, as it is not only about managing resources or ensuring compliance with regulations but also about inspiring and guiding staffs and students toward achieving academic and organizational excellence. The aim of this study is to determine the perception of teachers as regards the leadership practices of principals, as well as establish what possible impact the leadership style of school principals may have on student academic achievement. 300 teachers were selected by simple random sampling. Two instruments - the “Principals' Leadership Style Questionnaire (PLSQ)” and the “Teachers' Questionnaire”, were employed for the collection of data. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies and percentages as well as inferential statistics such as ANOVA, and regression were used to analyze the collected data. The results revealed that transformational leadership style was the most frequently utilized by principals of senior secondary schools in Ibadan North Local Government Area, Oyo State, followed by instructional, and lastly transactional. The study revealed that the principal's transformational leadership practices had a significant and positive effect on students' academic achievement, with an overall correlation value of r = 0.779 (p < 0.01). Additionally, the linear multiple regression analysis demonstrated that 61.4% of the variation in student academic performance could be attributed to changes in the principal's transformational leadership approach.