Today, the success of organizations and institutions requires effective and efficient management; among them, management in education and schools, as the formal institutions of education, holds a special place. The effectiveness of educational management on the one hand, and the ability to monitor the activities of principals on the other, necessitate access to performance standards in this area. Given the lack of a formulated standard for school principals and the significance and status of high schools, the aim of this research is to identify the performance standards for high school principals. The research method is grounded theory, and the data collection tool is a semi-structured interview. The statistical population includes all male high school principals in the districts of Mashhad. Ten prominent principals were purposefully selected as a sample using the snowball method. After open coding the transcribed interviews and axial coding, 27 components of the performance standards for school principals were identified. Finally, with categorization, these components were classified into five dimensions: human relations, managerial tasks, principals' vision and attitude, school growth and progress, and principals' personal needs. The importance of human relations in high school management was defined as the main category, and other components were defined in relation to it. Ultimately, a model of performance standards for high school principals was obtained.
