So why does teacher evaluation matter? Because teaching matters: "Without capable, high quality teachers in America's classrooms, no educational reform effort can possibly succeed" (Stronge & Tucker, 2003, p. 3). The core of education is teaching and learning, and the teaching-learning connection works best when we have effective teachers working with every student everyday. While effectiveness can be defined in myriad ways (Cruickshank & Haefele, 2001), the essential issue is that we have the most effective teachers possible guiding the learning of students. And, "without high quality evaluation systems, we cannot know if we have high quality teachers" (Stronge & Tucker, 2003, p. 3). Teacher evaluation is, first, about documenting the quality of teacher performance; then, its focus shifts to helping teachers improve their performance as well as holding them accountability for their work. "In recent years, as the field of education has moved toward a stronger focus on accountability and on careful analysis of variables affecting educational outcomes, the teacher has proven time and again to be the most influential school-related force in student achievement" (Stronge, 2002, p. viii). Given the emphasis on teacher quality as expressed in No Child Left Behind, as well as legislation, public policy, and practice in every state (and, for that matter, many nations throughout the world), a premium must be placed on high quality teacher evaluation systems to a degree that didn't exist heretofore. So why does teacher evaluation matter? Because regardless of how well a program is designed, it is only as effective as the people who implement it (Stronge, 1993). Thus, a conceptually sound, well designed, and properly implemented evaluation system for teachers is