You're trying to find an objective/standardized measure of performance, and I was trying to illustrate that it's not necessary. Most of that crap is talked about because the situation has gotten to the insane point where one needs concrete evidence of failure to fire a teacher. That's not needed in almost any other profession, and it shouldn't be necessary in education.
All that "saying nothing" was trying to illustrate anecdotally that it was obvious to anyone who actually watched the classes who needed to be fired.
If one gave absolute firing power to every principal, minus the ridiculous hoops they have to jump through and conditions that need to be met, they would undoubtedly take care of the worst offenders quickly and accurately. That alone won't get us to uniform excellence, but it would be a very good start. That's why I was harping on the inability to fire bad teachers.
All that "saying nothing" was trying to illustrate anecdotally that it was obvious to anyone who actually watched the classes who needed to be fired.
If one gave absolute firing power to every principal, minus the ridiculous hoops they have to jump through and conditions that need to be met, they would undoubtedly take care of the worst offenders quickly and accurately. That alone won't get us to uniform excellence, but it would be a very good start. That's why I was harping on the inability to fire bad teachers.