American Public School Pre-K Teacher Survey

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Pre-kindergarten (pre-K) educators are early learning experts whose voices and experiences can play a powerful role in informing education policy. RAND’s unique American Pre-K Teacher survey captures the experiences of pre-K teachers in public schools across the United States. The survey extends RAND’s existing nationally representative American Teacher Panel to capture the perspectives of public-school educators teaching the youngest students.

The goal of the American Pre-K Teacher survey is to better understand the experiences and perspectives of public school-based pre-K teachers on a variety of topics. Our aim is to provide the early learning field and policymakers with critical information about the experiences, opinions, and needs of the public pre-K teacher workforce.

The surveys examine an array of topics, including the use of curriculum materials and assessments to measure children’s learning, the availability and adequacy of instructional planning time, instructional alignment with kindergarten, professional learning activities, wages and benefits, well-being and working conditions, and retention.

Download our free reports or data files to use our research. Contact us to run your own survey and gather evidence you can trust with the level of precision you need to inform education policy and practice.

Featured Research

Key Findings

• More than 80 percent of public school–based pre-K teachers used multiple commercially available curriculum materials in their classrooms, even when they used a comprehensive curriculum.
• Most pre-K teachers believed that the instructional materials they used were high quality, particularly for promoting development in language and literacy, early numeracy, and social and emotional domains.
• Teachers of part-day and full-day classrooms reported using similar curriculum and assessment materials, but part-day teachers had less training on how to use them.
• Less than one-third of pre-K teachers strongly agreed that they had adequate time during their contracted hours for tasks that support instructional delivery.
• Teachers of part-day classrooms were less likely to report having adequate time for typical instructional planning tasks than were teachers of full-day classrooms.
• Less than half of pre-K teachers reported having dedicated time to coordinate across grades or dedicated time for kindergarten transition.

Additional Reports and Documentation

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Project Leader

Project Team

The Pre-K Teacher survey launched in spring 2024, with follow-up surveys planned for the 2024-25 school year. The survey has been made possible through generous support from the Gates Foundation.