Social Factors Related to Leadership Skills and Educational Achievement of Primary School Principals

INTRODUCTION: This paper aims to identify the leadership skills of principals of primary schools and their relationship to the levels of accomplishment obtained by students in their schools. METHOD: A test of leadership skills consisting of 60 items was applied to 31 principals of the same number of primary schools in the state of Tabasco, Mexico. The sampling was stratified by quotas and the data were grouped according to three levels of educational achievement: high, medium and low. RESULTS: The strongest leadership skill among the principals across the three levels of school achievement was understanding, while the weakest skill was ambition. The ability to understand others does not guarantee effective leadership unless it is complemented by other factors such as the shared creation of a vision, which includes all the members of the learning community, the motivation to develop it in a collaborative way, and the management and administration of the school. DISCUSSION: The results are useful for understanding how the sociocultural context influences leadership skills and styles of school principals.