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Survey reveals varied curriculum use and time constraints among public school pre-k teachers

According to a new RAND survey, over 80% of public school-based pre-kindergarten (pre-K) teachers use multiple curriculum materials. Some combine materials that focus on a particular domain—such as literacy or numeracy—while others use material that covers many domains at once, and some use both. More than two-thirds reported using materials that they created themselves, often in conjunction with commercial curriculums.

Most public school-based pre-K educators surveyed believe their instructional materials are high quality, especially for promoting development in language and literacy, early numeracy, and social and emotional domains.

These are the first findings from the new , the only nationally representative standing panel of public school-based pre-K teachers in the United States, fielded through RAND's . For this report, researchers surveyed over 1,300 public school pre-K teachers in April and May 2024.

"About 60% of children enrolled in publicly funded pre-K programs are located in public schools, and there's a growing interest in better understanding how these programs work," said Anna Shapiro, lead author of the report and an associate policy researcher at RAND, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization.

"As states expand public school-based pre-K programs, researchers and policymakers are looking to understand what makes them effective. So we asked part-day and full-day classroom teachers about the curriculum and assessment materials they use, their instructional planning time and access to professional learning to understand the resources public school-based teachers have to support children's learning."

The survey sheds light on the differences between full-day and part-day pre-K classrooms in public schools. Less than one-third of pre-K teachers strongly agree that they have sufficient time during contracted hours for tasks supporting instructional delivery, such as planning classroom activities, using assessment data to support student learning and completing administrative tasks.

This issue is more acute among part-day teachers, who report less training on instructional materials and inadequate time for instructional planning compared to their full-day peers. Additionally, less than half of the teachers surveyed have dedicated time for coordination across grades or dedicated time for kindergarten transition.