EXPLORING LEADERSHIP ROLE IN SCHOOL EFFECTIVENESS AND THE VALIDATION OF MODELS OF PRINCIPALS’ EFFECTS ON STUDENTS’ ACHIEVEMENT Andreas Kythreotis, Ph.D, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus Petros Pashiardis, Associate Professor, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus For many years now, researchers in the area of educational leadership have attempted to identify links between educational leadership and school effectiveness research. This phenomenon is mainly due to the perception that educational leaders, especially school principals, affect school effectiveness (Edmonds, 1979; Fuller, 1987; Rutter et al, 1979; Mortimore, Sammons, Ecob & Stoll 1988; Lezotte, 1989; Levin & Lezotte 1990; Reynolds & Cuttance, 1992; Cheng, 1994a; Pashiardis, 1995; Pashiardis, 1998; Pashiardis, 2004). However, two main issues have arisen: Firstly, what positions or roles do leaders have in a school organization? Secondly, under what conditions does school leadership affect students’ achievement and to what extent? In relation to the first issue, it is interesting that the vast majority of researchers have been involved mainly in studies of principals’ leadership styles. However, recent research has also been concerned with the leadership of persons who have other roles in a school organization such as teachers, (Cheng, 1994b; Ogawa & Bossert 1995; Pounder, Ogawa & Adams, 1998; Deal & Peterson, 1999, Harris & Muijs, 2003, Pashiardis, 2004). As a consequence, it is necessary to investigate the parameters of many individuals’ leadership styles in order to give a more complete overview of school leadership. The second issue is more complex due to contradictory findings concerning effects of leadership on students’ achievement. Some studies found no influence whereas others identified some effects (Edmonds, 1979; Andrews & Soder, 1987; Heck 1992; Johnson 1993). The meta-analyses, conducted by Hallinger & Heck (1996; 1998) and Witziers, Bosker & Krüger (2003), emphasized at least two important elements that differentiate the results among many studies. Firstly, the different educational systems and cultures among the various countries lead to different results (also in Pashiardis, Thody, Papanaoum & Johansson, 2003). Secondly, the absence of intermediate variables between principals’ leadership and students’ achievement tends to find no links between them (also in Teddlie & Reynolds, 2000). Based on the above, this study aims to examine the principals’ contribution to school effectiveness among primary schools in Cyprus. This work has adopted specific theories with regards to these three variables. More specifically, it is based on the Bolman & Deal’s (1984; 1991; 1997) theoretical model of leadership. Moreover, it adopted the Feitler & Gudgel’ (1994) model of organizational culture of schools and the Midgley, Maehr, Hicks, Roeser, Urdan, Anderman & Kaplan’s (2001) model of goal theory and school culture to investigate the learning culture of classrooms. Finally, it used the integrated model of school effectiveness, which is proposed by Hoy & Miskel (1996). The adoption of specific theoretical models was based on two main common characteristics of leadership, culture and effectiveness: At first, these three concepts are multidimensional, as each of them consists of many dimensions. For example, integrated models of school effectiveness indicate many criteria of inputs, transformations and outputs (Hoy & Miskel, 2001). Second, these three