Teacher quality = principal quality?

The Center for American Progress has published a report you should read: “Principals’ Approaches to Developing Teacher Quality.” The wide variation in the degree of authority administrators have in the hiring process, and how they wield that authority, is quite interesting. The principals surveyed emphasized the simultaneous importance and impotence of teacher evaluation. The phrase “dog and pony show” comes up more than once, and I have long held—because I have seen it for myself—that the lesson that is formally observed does not always reflect a teacher’s day-to-day instruction. Meaningful evaluation requires a lot of work. Do the principals you cover have time for it?

Many tidbits here that can be developed into stories. Take a look.