From Policy to Practice: How State Policies Relate to Public Pre-K Teachers’ Curriculum Use

As many states expand the number of pre-K seats in public schools, policymakers are focused on better understanding the role of curriculum in ensuring high-quality early childhood education environments. By combining data from the National Institute for Early Education Research’s State of Preschool Yearbook with data from RAND's American Pre-K Teacher Survey, we investigated the role that state policies related to curriculum use play in public school pre-K teachers’ reported curricula use across the United States.

We find substantial variation in the curricula teachers report using across states, and some differences across pre-K programs within states. In addition, specific state curriculum guidance appears to influence classroom curriculum use. When states required that teachers use specific curricula (rather than recommending curricula), teachers reported combining fewer curricula in their classrooms.
 

Key Findings include:

• Half of state-funded pre-K programs have a list of required or recommended curricula.
• In state pre-K programs with a list of required curricula, 86% of teachers reported using a curriculum from the state list.
• By comparison, in state pre-K programs with a list of recommended curricula, 77% of teachers reported using a curriculum from the state list.
• State curriculum policies can have “spillover” effects. In states that require or recommend specific curricula in state-funded pre-K programs, non-state-funded teachers also reported using curricula from those lists.
• Teachers in state-funded pre-K programs with lists of required or recommended curricula were less likely to use more than one comprehensive curriculum and less likely to add a subject-specific curriculum (e.g., math, literacy, social-emotional) than teachers in states without such lists.

About NIEER and RAND

The National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) at the Graduate School of Education, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, conducts and disseminates independent research and analysis to inform early childhood education policy.

RAND is a research organization that develops solutions to public policy challenges to help make communities throughout the world safer and more secure, healthier and more prosperous. RAND is nonprofit, nonpartisan, and committed to the public interest. This study was conducted in the Education and Employment Program of RAND Education, Employment, and Infrastructure, a division of RAND that aims to improve educational opportunity, economic prosperity, and civic life for all. For more information, visit www.rand.org/eei or email eei@rand.org.