Even more than the ability to present concepts or assess students, the best predictor of a new teacher’s effectiveness and likelihood to stay in the classroom is how quickly they learn to manage class, includingstudent behavior.
That’s the conclusion of a new study analyzing the instructional progress of 25,000 novice teachers in Tennessee, based on the results of their evaluations.
“Classroom management in particular has spillover effects in how it shapes the overall classroom dynamic,” said Brendan Bartanen, an assistant professor of education leadership at the University of Virginia and co-author of the study. “If you do not have a classroom that is orderly, in which most students can think and learn without distraction, you’re going to be hard pressed to see substantial improvements in student learning.”
Bartanen and colleagues looked at data from Tennessee’s teacher-evaluation system, which includes both principals’ classroom observations and a value-added measure that gauges growth in student test scores.
As part of the classroom observations, administrators must detail one focus area for improvement from among 19 instructional skills, including questioning, presenting content, behavior management, and problem-solving.
None of the skills is weighted more heavily than others in teachers’ evaluations. But Bartanen found among the 25 percent of new teachers who received the lowest overall observation and value-added scores, administrators were most likely to point to weak behavior management, followed by lagging content-presentation skills.
The highest-performing new teachers, by contrast, looked more like veteran teachers when it came to these skills.
“Overall improvement among new teachers is likely driven by improvement in those two skills in particular—among the teachers who stay,” Bartanen said.
Young teachers very rarely get fired outright for having poor behavior management skills, but principals may informally transfer low-performing teachers to other schools or encourage them to leave.
Teachers struggling with behavior problems are also more likely to burn out. “If I as a teacher am having difficulty managing the classroom, my day-to-day life as a teacher is likely to be not ideal, and that might lead me to leave,” he said.
Clear, targeted feedback makes evaluation more successful
One immediate way for principals to support teachers? Provide more effective feedback for teachers after observations.
Nearly half of teachers receive no actionable or goal-setting feedback at all, a 2022 study also using Tennessee data found.that
Researchers in that study recommended that administrators give feedback that:
- Is aligned to the area in which the teacher most needs improvement;
- Is based on and justified by evidence;
- Sets clear and specific goals; and
- Includes the next steps the teacher should take.
Providing more training and support for young teachers in managing students can lighten the load for the school overall, since new teachers are more likely than others to refer students to the principal’s office for discipline.
By contrast, the new study showed that higher-performing novice teachers and veteran teachers were more likely to need improvement in more sophisticating teaching skills like asking and soliciting answers to questions or facilitating high-quality partner and group work.
But those teachers deserve targeted feedback, too, perhaps on ways to deepen their teaching repertoires.
“School leaders shouldn’t forget that novice teachers who come in with those foundational teaching skills [such as class management] should have opportunities to develop as well,” he said, “and that means they’re probably going to need a different set of supports around a different set of higher-order teaching skills.”
On average, teachers improve rapidly their first few years on the job and more slowly after that, signaling the need to continue focusing on more than just novices.
“Five years is not all that long when you think about a 35-year teaching career, and the fact that we’re not seeing consistent improvement after those first few years, means I think we’re potentially leaving a lot on the table in terms of helping teachers become even more effective,” Bartanen said.
