Moderating Effect of Principal’s Leadership on the Relationship between School Board Efficacy and Students’ Academic Performance in Selected Secondary Schools in North Rift Kenya

Abstract

School Boards have a definitive role in school outcomes and schools require effective leadership in order to provide the best possible education for their learners. The purpose of this study was to establish the moderating effect of the principal’s leadership on the relationship between Board of Management (BOM) efficacy and student’s performance in selected secondary schools in the North Rift of Kenya. Cross sectional survey design was employed for this study. Multistage, stratified and simple random techniques were used to select 358 teachers who were administered with questionnaires in the counties of Uasin Gishu, Elgeyo Marakwet and Nandi out of a target population of 6,678 teachers. Reliability of the instrument was tested by use of Cronbach alpha. Hayes (2018) PROCESS macro version 4.2 model 1, descriptive and multiple regression were used to analyze the data. The findings indicated that principal leadership moderates the relationship between BOM efficacy and student academic performance (b=.07, p=<.01). The study concludes that principal leadership plays a significant moderating role in strengthening the relationship between BOM efficacy and students' academic performance. The study recommends strengthening principal leadership capabilities and promoting effective collaboration with BOMs in secondary schools in order to bolster student success and improve overall educational outcomes. These findings have implications for policy and practice, highlighting the need for targeted interventions aimed at developing and strengthening principal leadership capacity and promoting effective BOM governance structures in secondary schools.