The principal needs to be a strong instructional leader and foster a healthy school climate while having sufficient time to dedicate to these roles with all that is expected of the position. This quantitative-based research study examined the relationship between the perceptions of elementary and high school principals and elementary and high school teachers on the instructional leadership of a principal and student achievement and the fostering of a healthy school climate and student achievement. This study also examined the relationship that if the principals has sufficient time to dedicate to being a strong instructional leader and fostering a healthy school climate students will have higher achievement. The researcher selected the South Central and Southern Illinois sections of Illinois for this study. Rural schools were randomly selected from the 33 counties which have 183 schools with 12,335 teachers and 365 principals. Twenty two schools were chosen and emails were sent out to 38 principals and 1,085 teachers. Electronic media was utilized in order to dispense the survey and SurveyMonkey was used to collect the response data. Of the 1,123 teachers and principals contacted, 217 responded. This sample size gave a 6.6% error level and a 95% confidence interval. The researcher concluded that there was relationship between the perceptions of the elementary and high school principals of being a strong instructional leader and student achievement. There was no significant relationship between the elementary teachers' perception of their principal being a strong instructional leader and student achievement, however, a significant relationship was found between the high school teachers' perception of their principal being a strong instructional leader and student achievement. The researcher also concluded that there was a relationship for the elementary principals and high school principals between the principals' perception of fostering a healthy school climate and student achievement. The researcher concluded that there was no significant relationship between elementary teachers' perception of their principal fostering a healthy school climate and student achievement, however, a significant relationship was found between high teachers' perception of their principal fostering a healthy school climate and student achievement. Lastly, the researcher concluded that there was no significant relationship found between the perceptions of the elementary and high school principals and elementary and high school teachers of the principal having sufficient time to dedicate to being a strong instructional leader and fostering a healthy school climate and student achievement. [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://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]