The relationship between situational leadership and student achievement

The study of leadership has been one of great interest for many years and many leadership theories have since surfaced. Bolman and Deal’s (1991) situational leadership theory places leadership styles into four unique frames and suggests that the most effective leaders are able to utilize the most appropriate leadership frame that a situation might require. This study investigates these situational leadership frames which are structural, political, human resource, and symbolic and the relationship they may have with student achievement based on school performance labels given by the Mississippi State Department of Education. The study was conducted in two months and involved 126 elementary school principals from the state of Mississippi whose schools participate in annual state testing known as the Mississippi Curriculum Test, second edition (MCT II). Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) tests were conducted to identify statistically significant relationships between situational leadership frames used by elementary school principals and the school performance label their schools earned on MCT II testing in 2009. Schools are classified with seven different performance labels from top ranked down: star school, high performing school, successful school, academic watch school, low performing school, at-risk of failing school, and failing school. The results of this study revealed that no significant relationship existed between a particular frame from Bolman and Deal’s situational leadership frames and student achievement within this particular group of elementary school principals in Mississippi. The study also revealed that no significant relationship existed between a combination of frames from Bolman and Deal’s situational leadership frames and student achievement within this particular group of elementary school principals in Mississippi.