This study aimed to analyze leadership styles to discover which leadership style had the most significant positive and negative impact on student academic achievement in rural high schools in Alabama. This study attempted to reveal if a significant difference in student academic achievement existed based on the school leader's leadership style, years of leadership, and gender. The independent variables were leadership style, years of experience, and gender. The dependent variable was student academic achievement. The survey was distributed to 24 superintendents and 57 principals in rural high schools and rural school systems in Alabama. The survey consisted of Likert-style questions ranging from 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 5 (Strongly Agree) regarding leadership style and three demographic questions. Employing a One-Way ANOVA and TwoWay ANOVA to analyze the research questions, the results revealed there was a significant difference in the means between student academic achievement and leadership style. Furthermore, results revealed no significant difference in student academic achievement when compared to leadership styles, years of experience, and gender. Transformational leadership had the highest potential for impacting student academic achievement and leaders should be professionally trained to utilize this style.