This study examined the relationship between the leadership styles of secondary school principals, measured by the self-report "Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire 5X short" (Bass & Avolio, 2000) and the school's dropout rates, as reported by the Texas Education Agency in the Academic Excellence Indicator System (AEIS) report while controlling for the leaders' age, tenure, education, gender, and ethnicity. A Multiple Regression was run to identify predictors of dropout rate. A Pearson r correlation was run to examine the relationship of the variables. In addition, a Multiple Regression analysis of various demographic variables identified in the AEIS report, such as ethnicity and socio economic status of the school, was run to determine predictors of leadership style. Secondary school principals within the State of Texas were surveyed to obtain data for this study. The results contribute to leadership literature as well as literature on student dropouts by examining the relationship between the secondary school principals' leadership styles and student dropouts. [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.]