The study examined the extent to which management practices used by school principals influence students’ academic performance in national examinations in public secondary schools in Kiambu County, Kenya. The objectives of the study were four fold, namely: (i) to examine the extent to which planning techniques of available human and physical resources influence students’ academic performance;(ii) determine effect of strategies applied to fast track effective teaching on students’ academic performance; (iii) to establish the relationship between student support services and students’ academic performance (iv) to establish the effect of monitoring of teaching and learning processes on students’ academic performance in public secondary schools in the study locale. The study adopted a descriptive correlation research design. Combinations of stratified and simple random sampling techniques were applied to select 26 principals from public secondary schools in Kiambu County. In-depth data was generated using semi-structured questionnaires from principals. The findings revealed that there was an association between most of the identified management variables such effective planning of human and physical resources, organizational strategies, curriculum leadership, control measures and students academic performance in most of the top performing schools in the county. These management techniques were rarely used in low performing schools in the county. It is recommended that strategic management techniques for school principals should be intensified in all secondary schools in Kiambu County through regular retraining and overall professional development. [228 words]
