The study examined the mediating effect of innovative services on the relationship between market orientation and private schools' performance. The study is exploratory correlation research. The population of this study consists of 12,098 private schools in the South-West Geopolitical Zone in Nigeria. Yaro Yamane's formula was used to select a sample of 1104 private schools across the six states in the South-West Geopolitical Zone while proportionate sampling was used to send the questionnaire across these states. Data were collected from 879 private schools’ through administered questionnaires completed by management staff. The collected data were analyzed using correlation and regression analysis. The finding shows that although MO is necessary for schools' performance, it requires the mediating effects of innovative services to achieve greater performance. The study, therefore, suggests that private schools should be market-orientated to achieve high performance.