Gikundi, Ginson NkongeMudulia, Mabel2024-08-262024-08-2620242501 - 1111https://erepository.mku.ac.ke/handle/123456789/6331The principal's role in educational leadership is defined by the actions he or she performs or delegates to others to improve the academic achievement of students. The purpose of this study was to assess the influence of goal-setting skills on students’ academic performance in Maara Sub County. This study targeted 59 principals and 967 teachers from the public secondary schools in Maara Sub County. The study employed a stratified sampling technique for schools, an equal allocation sampling technique for both principals and teachers for the quantitative phase and a maximum variation sampling procedure for the qualitative phase. The qualitative portion of the project included questionnaires for instructors, as well as interview schedules for school principals. Pilot studies were used to assess the validity of the research instruments, while test re-tests were used to confirm their dependability. In order to get a sense of how the variables under consideration are distributed, we utilized means and percentages. Frequency tables, pie charts, and bar graphs were used to display quantitative data. Principals' educational leadership techniques and pupils' academic achievement were examined using the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient.engoal settingopen social systemperformanceskillsArticle