Investigation of the relationship between students’ academic achievement and schools’ leadership capacity: An analysis of lower secondary schools in Turkey

The purpose of this study was to determine lower secondary school students’ academic achievement based on the leadership capacity of schools. The relational survey model was applied using a Turkish adaptation of the Leadership Capacity School Survey with a sample of 1836 students and 525 faculty and staff at 17 schools. The Study found that the leadership capacity of the schools was above average. Results of the Hierarchical Linear Modeling analysis revealed a significant difference among the schools in terms of students' achievements of graduation and transition to upper secondary schools. Moreover, the research revealed that schools’ leadership capacity predicted students’ achievements in graduation and transition to upper secondary schools. The implications of the study were that the leadership competency of educators should be improved through pre-service training at faculties of education for teacher candidates and in-service training carried out by the Ministry of National Education for teachers.