Educational leaders across the United States face changes affecting the educational system related to federal and state mandates. The stress of those changes may be related to superintendents' longevity. The superintendent position has a mobility rate that is quite high. Every superintendent is different and may have a different leadership style than their predecessor. The district culture, goals, and expectations may change depending on the superintendents' leadership style. If superintendents' leadership style affects principals' performance, it may affect the principals' success or failure. The purpose of this quantitative correlational research study was to identify if correlations existed linking 126 principals' perception of superintendents' leadership style and principals' performance as reflected by student achievement data. The goal was to obtain principals' perception of the superintendents' leadership style as measured by the MLQ and principals' performance as measured by AIMS reading and math data from the 2011-2012 to 2012-2013 school years. The results indicated that superintendents' transformational, passive avoidant and transactional leadership styles did not correlate positively to math difference scores. However, the results indicated that the passive avoidant leadership style was positively, correlated to reading difference scores. The results also indicated that there was a positive correlation between reading and math difference scores. Educational leaders should be aware that the analysis of data indicates that it is plausible that passive avoidant leadership may be more complex than nonleadership as labeled in previous research. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]