Leadership is an ever changing process and principals play a key role in the instructional focus of a school which often times created success in instruction (Riordan, 2003). Principals face different challenges today while improving schools and student academic achievement. The perceptions of an effective school leader has changed over the years and this change is significant enough to warrant further exploring. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between leadership style, gender and years of experience and the growth trends of middle schools in North Carolina Public Schools.

The study was guided by the following research questions: (a) Is there a significant difference in gender and years of experience of middle principals in the academic growth trends of middle school students in North Carolina over a three year period? (b) What leadership style is most dominating among middle school principals in North Carolina? and (c) Is there a significant relationship between gender, leadership style and years of experience of North Carolina Middle School principals and the growth trends on the end of grade test scores? The dominate leadership style, (a) transformational, (b) transactional and (c) laissez-faire leadership for middle school principals were determined using the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ Leader Form 5x-Short), is a 45 item survey instrument. A t-test showed the relationship between gender, years of experience and EOG results in reading and mathematics.

The data showed the relationship between gender and years of experience in female principals who had higher gains as opposed to male principals with 15 years or more showed lower growth trends over a three year span. In conclusion, female leaders were found to have higher growth trends in comparison to male leaders in this study. It is essential that leaders have components of all of the leadership styles in order to be effective.