Abstract
Novice teachers improve substantially in their first years on the job, but we know remarkably little about the nature of this skill development. Using data from Tennessee, we leverage a feature of the classroom observation protocol that asks school administrators to identify an item on which the teacher should focus their improvement efforts. This “area of refinement” overcomes a key measurement challenge endemic to inferring from classroom observation scores the development of specific teaching skills. We show that administrators disproportionately identify two skills when observing novice teachers: classroom management and presenting content. Struggling with classroom management, in particular, is associated with early career attrition. Using a returns to experience framework, we observe improvement in these skills among teachers who remain.
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