The greening of the United States teacher workforce puts a premium on districts and schools hiring effective and persistent beginning teachers. Given the limitations of characteristics currently available at the time of hiring (e.g., academic ability measures, preparation type), we built off previous research in economics and psychology to investigate relationships between personality traits and first-year teachers' performance and persistence in North Carolina public schools. Using the Five Factor Model of personality, we find that higher levels of "conscientiousness" significantly predict higher value-added estimates, higher evaluation ratings, and higher rates of retention. Additionally, general self-efficacy, a sub-domain of "conscientiousness," significantly predicts teacher value-added and evaluation ratings. These "conscientiousness" results are consistent with a rich body of evidence connecting conscientiousness-related measures to employee performance across professions and suggest that districts and schools should consider using personality trait measures, along with other valid indicators, as a way to improve teacher hiring decisions.