In 2021, Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers set out a plan to create the largest universal preschool program in the country for 4-year-olds, through a massive ramp-up of an elementary grade known as transitional kindergarten, or TK.<\/p>\n
At a news conference<\/a>, Newsom called it<\/a> \u201ca commitment that all 4-year-olds will get high quality instructional education,\u201d and said that the investment could close learning gaps. \u201cPeople aren\u2019t left behind, as often as they start behind,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n The state set a deadline that every district offer transitional kindergarten to all eligible 4-year-olds by fall 2025, and in the intervening years, schools have enrolled more than 175,000 children in TK. They\u2019ve also had to hire new teachers<\/a> and modify classrooms<\/a> so that kids have enough space and quick access to smaller-sized bathrooms<\/a>.<\/p>\n Raising kids?<\/p>\n Our Early Childhood newsletter, focused on raising kids ages 0-5, is your place to get reads and resources on the topics most important to your family. <\/p>\n LAist spoke to more than a half dozen early childhood researchers who say a key piece has been missing in the state\u2019s implementation: California itself hasn\u2019t evaluated the program as it’s expanded, nor does it have plans to going forward. This, despite studies showing how critical the early years are for a child\u2019s learning, and research from another state\u2019s public preschool program that found students tested lower on state assessments and had more behavioral problems compared to those who weren\u2019t in that program..<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aIt is a huge mistake to not evaluate the implementation of TK and whether or not the classrooms are providing developmentally appropriate practice,\u201d said Jade Jenkins, associate professor of education at the University of California, Irvine.<\/p>\n The criticism comes as California has invested $1.2 billion to expand TK<\/a>, and is paying about $3.9 billion this year<\/a> to administer the new grade level.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aWe need to know whether this investment is actually lifting kids. We know it’s a huge economic windfall for parents, and that’s a great boost for families. But is it lifting kids without government research?\u201d said Bruce Fuller, a professor emeritus of education and public policy at UC Berkeley.<\/p>\n As a taxpayer, I don’t find it acceptable that billions of dollars are being spent with no attention to how our systems can learn to use that in ways that are most beneficial for kids.<\/p>\n \u2014 Alix Gallagher, Policy Analysis for California Education <\/p>\n A spokesperson for the California Department of Education said money for research has not been allocated in the state budget, and the department would \u201cwelcome a legislative appropriation\u201d to \u201cstudy the impacts of TK on students and families.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAt this time, the Legislature and Governor have not appropriated funding for the CDE to conduct evaluations,\u201d the agency said.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not the first time the agency has brought up the need for a study \u2014 especially as the program was rolling out statewide. A state official told LAist in 2022 that they recommend an implementation study<\/a>, but they opted not to suggest how it should be funded.<\/p>\n \u201cYou could launch a very high quality study at a tiny, tiny, tiny percentage of the total funding for that program, and that would help people figure out what we are actually offering our families and how to improve it \u2014 and that seems really important,\u201d said Alix Gallagher, \u200adirector of education policy and outcomes<\/a> for the research organization Policy Analysis for California Education. \u201cAs a taxpayer, I don’t find it acceptable that billions of dollars are being spent with no attention to how our systems can learn to use that in ways that are most beneficial for kids.”<\/p>\n Researchers LAist spoke with<\/p>\n Dale Farran, professor emeritus, Vanderbilt UniversityAllison Friedman-Krauss, associate research professor at the National Institute for Early Education Research<\/a>, Rutgers UniversityBruce Fuller, professor emeritus of education and public policy, UC Berkeley.Alix Gallagher, director of education policy and outcomes, Policy Analysis for California EducationLaura Hill, policy director and senior fellow, Public Policy Institute of CaliforniaJade Jenkins, associate professor of education, UC IrvineRucker Johnson, professor of public policy, UC BerkeleyAustin Land, researcher, UC Berkeley’s Equity and Excellence in Early Childhood<\/p>\n TK experiences can look different school to school<\/p>\n The state sets standards for TK classrooms<\/a>, which can have a max of 24 kids and need a 10:1 student to adult ratio. Teachers must be credentialed with early childhood educational experience or units. And while the state has guidelines on what students<\/a> should learn in TK, it has no mandated curriculum <\/a>\u2014 meaning programs can vary widely from being play-based<\/a> to more academic.<\/p>\n Lyse Messmer, a parent of a TK child in northeast L.A., has seen even variation between two schools her son has attended in the same area. His first program relied more on screen time and worksheets; Messmer transferred him to another program with more outdoor play. And the teacher at the former school had not previously taught TK, she said, which made for a harder transition into school.<\/p>\n But she said the overall experience has been beneficial for her child, and a welcome financial relief. \u201cI think the benefits of him getting used to a bigger classroom and like a bigger elementary school and navigating all that stuff for him has been really positive,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Adding a new grade is a massive endeavor for districts. As in Messmer\u2019s case, it can be especially hard to find teachers with experience teaching kids this age, said Austin Land, a researcher at UC Berkeley\u2019s Equity and Excellence in Early Childhood.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aYou can’t require that every kid that wants a TK spot gets a TK spot and then also require this workforce to exist that has all this preexisting training,\u201d Land said.<\/p>\n Land, who has been studying TK before the expansion, said he would like to know basic characteristics of TK classrooms today.<\/p>\n \u201cDo you have a sixth grade teacher that got reassigned leading your classroom or is it somebody who’s been working with little kids for a while?\u201d Land said. \u201c\u200aIs the teacher having a one-on-one interaction with a child or a one-on-two interaction with some children? Or are they spending most of their time up at the front?\u201d<\/p>\n Lack of data on quality<\/p>\n Without data, it\u2019s hard to know what children are learning, said Allison Friedman-Krauss, an associate research professor at the National Institute for Early Education Research<\/a> at Rutgers University.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to make sure we’re investing in quality for kids. And one way to know that we’re doing it is to be able to monitor it\u2026 we want to make sure that the state can sort of have a pulse on what’s going on in the classroom,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Transitional kindergarten classrooms can vary school to school, with some more play-based and others more academic. <\/p>\n The institute scores public preschool programs<\/a> across the country on a number of benchmarks of quality. According to the institute\u2019s tracking, about two-thirds of public preschool programs in the country have a classroom observation system in place, she said. California\u2019s TK program does not.<\/p>\n Researchers said it\u2019s especially important to know what these youngest students are doing because early experiences can affect their learning later on.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the very least, we want to make sure it’s not doing harm,\u201d Jenkins said.<\/p>\n What is transitional kindergarten?<\/p>\n In 2010, state lawmakers passed The Kindergarten Readiness Act, which changed the age cutoff for kindergarten. It required districts to offer a new program\u2014 transitional kindergarten\u2014 to kids who would be excluded from kindergarten because of the change, those with 5th birthdays between September and December of the current school year.<\/p>\n The law defined transitional kindergarten as “the first year of a two-year kindergarten program that uses a modified kindergarten curriculum that is age and developmentally appropriate.” Every district implements TK a little differently, so you’ll get the most useful information by asking them for more details about the program.<\/p>\n The California Department of Education considers\u00a0pre-K as an umbrella term<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 transitional kindergarten is pre-K, but not everything that could be considered pre-K is transitional kindergarten. (Programs like Head Start, for example.)<\/p>\n Tennessee: A cautionary tale<\/p>\n Researchers point to a study of Tennessee\u2019s public preschool system<\/a> as an example of where good intentions were not enough to benefit kids. The state has similar standards to what California put in place: max class sizes, low ratios, specialized teachers.<\/p>\n Dale Farran, a professor emeritus at Vanderbilt University, found in her research that children who attended the pre-K program ended up faring worse academically and behaviorally than their peers who didn\u2019t attend. Farran said standards don\u2019t guarantee quality, much less equity between students from different social, economic and racial backgrounds.<\/p>\n \u201cThose structural elements \u200aare the easiest things for states to make rules about, but are they having the kind of interactions in the classrooms that will be positive for children? That\u2019s much harder to put into place,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Farran has said that one possible reason for this was the overly academic nature of the program and structured settings: kids sitting at desks and listening to a teacher up front, when kids this age need to move around and play.<\/p>\n Katie Flynn, a mom of a TK student in Pasadena, said while she\u2019s had an overall positive experience with her son in TK this year, it still feels more like elementary school than preschool.<\/p>\n At the beginning of the year, her son wouldn\u2019t drink his water all day, or avoided going to the bathroom until he got home, because teachers didn\u2019t remind or prompt him like they did in private preschool.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aI know it’s also his responsibility, right? Like he needs to listen to his body. So it’s a mutual, collaborative enterprise, but it just shows how limited this age group is in ensuring that that happens,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the very least, we want to make sure [TK] is not doing harm.”<\/p>\n \u2014 Jade Jenkins, UC Irvine<\/p>\n What can the state do?<\/p>\n The California Department of Education said absent funding from the state Legislature for the department to evaluate the program, it convenes a regular group of early childhood researchers in the state to share their work into TK. But researchers LAist talked to from that group said that approach can only go so far.<\/p>\n Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, chair of the Assembly Education Committee, said he wasn\u2019t familiar with the Tennessee study, but funding for evaluation is something he will look into.<\/p>\n \u201cWe definitely need to make sure that we’re again evaluating our most effective programs so that we can focus on best practices to continue to support those statewide,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n When LAist asked how the state will assess the current program, Muratsuchi and a State Board of Education spokesperson pointed to one large-scale study of TK done by the American Institutes for Research<\/a>, in 2017. (The governor\u2019s office also directed LAist to the state board.)<\/p>\n That AIR study found that kids who went to TK when it first started in California had stronger literacy and math skills when entering kindergarten compared to similar-age peers who didn\u2019t go to TK at the beginning of the year. (Those differences mostly faded by the end of the year).<\/p>\n Land, the UC Berkeley researcher, and Gallagher, of PACE, said the AIR study was done nearly a decade ago, and on a TK program that looks different from TK today.<\/p>\n That’s because when TK started in 2012, they said, it was intended for kids who were nearly 5 years old, but had just missed the cutoff for kindergarten. Today, kids as young as 3 are entering TK in California.<\/p>\n LAist also reached out to Karen Manship, principal researcher of the AIR study. She said they\u2019re still investigating topics related to transitional kindergarten, \u201cbut we do not have any funding or current plans to evaluate the program overall now that it is fully rolled out.\u201d<\/p>\n The state education board spokesperson also cited research by economist Rucker Johnson, who looked at TK between 2013 and 2019, which found low-income children had greater reading and math gains by third grade than students who did not attend TK.<\/p>\n \u201cThese points tell us that an early start has proven to be beneficial for California students,\u201d said a spokesperson for the board, which sets state policy.<\/p>\n LAist reached out to Johnson, who said that while his study of TK in the early years is promising, it\u2019s \u201cnot a sufficient condition.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFor improvements to be sustained, meaning even if they were good in the past, it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t continue to be monitoring the success as they’re expanded and expanded that scale to universal,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Kevin McCarty, Sacramento\u2019s mayor and a former state assemblymember who championed the legislation to expand TK, told LAist funding is a challenge \u2014 given other budget priorities<\/a> \u2014 but that he welcomes evaluation.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to make sure that it’s effective, that it works, and if there are any issues that we need to address and improve going forward,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n In the meantime, he said the program has given many parents a huge economic relief \u2014 and parents have a choice on whether to send their kids.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771940231_713_.jpeg\")
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