This Southeastern state was awarded one of the first two Race to The Top (RTTT) grants the U. S. Department of Education funded. A key piece of the state's winning application was a legislative mandate to implement an intensive, quantitative, and accountability driven teacher evaluation system beginning with the 2011-2012 school year. The new law required compliance with far more rigorous minimum standards for frequency, type, scoring, and reporting of teacher evaluations. The relatively quick policy overhaul, coupled with higher-stakes accountability, affected principals' instructional leadership and customary school practice. This multi-site exploratory qualitative study examined fourteen K-12 principals' perspectives. The sites included four high schools, five middle schools, and five elementary schools located in rural and suburban areas.