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Research findings claim that indicators, representing high-quality exchanges between leaders and followers, are important predictors of organizational effectiveness. There is scarce evidence related to the role of these indicators in student achievement. The purpose of this paper is to test a hypothesized model including three important high-quality exchange indicators.

Totally, 449 teachers from 166 elementary schools in Tehran provided data on trust in principal and procedural justice and 166 principals provided data on organizational citizenship behavior of teachers. Student achievement was calculated by averaging grade five students’ scores on district examinations in science and math. Data were collected in each school during regularly scheduled meetings and were analyzed using correlation analysis and structural equation modeling.

The hypothesized model has an adequate fit to observed data, supporting the argument that principal-teacher high-quality exchanges provide positive outcomes in the form of student achievement.

Since most studies on high-quality exchange indicators are limited to non-educational settings, this study extends this line of inquiry in public schools. It also contributes to school effectiveness literature by providing empirical evidence concerning the link between trust in principal, procedural justice, organizational citizenship behavior, and student achievement.

The purpose of this study is to investigate gender differences in transformational leadership and social exchange outcomes in public primary schools in Tehran, Iran.

A total number of 400 teachers and 77 principals completed questionnaires. Multivariate analysis of variance was performed to determine gender differences in transformational leadership dimensions including idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration. Also, multiple regression was used to identify the impact of dimensions on three social exchange outcomes including procedural justice, trust in principal, and organizational citizenship behaviors of teachers.

Results showed that female principals as compared to male principals obtained significantly higher scores on transformational leadership dimensions and the greater amount of transformational behaviors displayed by them has accompanied with the greater prediction of social exchange outcomes.

This study suggests that there are some benefits associated with having female principals and schools could particularly benefit from developing principal training programs that focus on developing female principals qualities. Some following limitations could be avoided in future research: only relying on teacher rating of principal, possible effect of the teacher's gender on the relationship of transformational leadership with social exchange outcomes, and principal‐teacher gender mach limitation in rating principals.

Given the limited studies conducted on gender differences in transformational leadership and social exchange outcomes in schools and in Iran, this study provides empirical insights and extends this line of inquiry in public schools. This study confirms the results of previous studies which they have found females as more transformational than male counterparts and also provides new finding surrounding social exchange outcomes. These results could be influential in encouraging Iranian policy makers to further acknowledge women administration in public schools.