PBS education correspondent John Merrow just finished a blog post this morning on classroom observations. The core of his conclusion:

To wrap this up, that’s over a dozen teachers sharing their ideas and frustrations and highlighting two simultaneous problems–lack of evaluation and ineffective evaluation. Given that we seem to be moving inexorably toward some form of merit pay, how thoughtfully teachers are evaluated matters more than ever. And that means that we have to decide who does the evaluating and make sure they are prepared for the job.

Sobering, and very important to consider.