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Abstract

Goal-setting strategy is a classroom instruction technique adopted to establish a direction for learning in respective schools. These strategies may be responsible for the disparity in school performance, especially in private schools in Nyeri and Murang'a Counties. Previous scholarly works on headteachers' target setting strategies have concentrated on public schools while ignoring private schools. Therefore, this study examined the influence of goal-setting strategies and academic performance in private primary schools in the Nyeri and the Murang'a Counties in Kenya. The study adopted Bertalanffy and Weihrich Systems' theories. The study used a descriptive survey research design. The target population for the study is 2,630 head teachers and teachers from 259 private primary schools in the Murang'a and the Nyeri Counties. The schools considered had done KCPE for at least five years before the study period. The study employed Slovin's formula to determine the number of head teachers and teachers where 58 headteachers and 342 teachers were estimated to be representative samples for respective groups. The research also selected 15 SCQASOs using purposive sampling, while simple random sampling was adopted to select 158 schools from the two Counties. At the school level, the researcher recruited a headteacher using a purposive approach and two or three teachers using simple random sampling. A questionnaire was adopted to collect data from headteachers and teachers and interview schedules from SCQASOs. The researcher used Cronbach's alpha to compute the reliability of the study tools and determined at 0.7; all variables had an alpha coefficient above 0.7, which implies an internal consistency. The researcher also tested the content and the construct validity of the questionnaire by submitting the questionnaire. Data were analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and presented using charts and tables. Qualitative data were analysed using Atlas.it, coded while quantitative data were analyzed in SPSS using descriptive and inferential statistics. The researcher used descriptive methods such as frequency distribution and correlation coefficient. The study found a statistically significant association between target setting and academic performance of private primary schools in Murang'a and Nyeri Counties. The findings can be generalized in private and public primary schools in Kenya.