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

• Pre-kindergarten (pre-K) teacher base salaries rose by about $1,600, on average, between 2024 and 2025 in inflation-adjusted terms.
• However, not all pre-K teachers saw a base salary increase. Around one-half of pre-K teachers experienced a salary increase (of $3,000 on average), and the other one-half of pre-K teachers experienced a salary decrease (of $1,600 on average).
• Pre-K teachers received fewer employer-provided benefits (e.g., paid parental leave and overtime pay) in 2025 compared with 2024.
• The share of pre-K teachers who intended to leave their jobs fell by around one-quarter between 2024 and 2025.

Research from the 2025 American Pre-K Teacher Survey

Research from the 2024 American Pre-K Teacher Survey

Technical Documentation and Survey Results

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Project Leader

Project Team

The Pre-K Teacher survey launched in spring 2024 and fielded a follow-up survey in the 2024–2025 school year. The survey has been made possible through generous support from the Gates Foundation.