Policy observers have expressed concern over whether misalignment between pre-K and K–12 has negative consequences for children. This study considers students’ exposure to redundant content across the pre-K and kindergarten years. Specifically, it asks, to what extent are skills and concepts taught in kindergarten redundant with skills and concepts taught in one state’s public pre-K program, and for whom is redundancy most likely? Overall, findings from teacher surveys show that about 37% of the language, literacy, and math content covered in kindergarten is redundant with content covered in pre-K. The highest rates of redundancy seem to occur for basic (rather than advanced) content items, including the identification of letters and sight words. Moreover, children from families who live at or below the poverty line experience significantly higher rates of redundant content. Implications for policy, practice, and future research are discussed.

政策观察者对K之前的学习和K-12的未完成是否对儿童产生负面影响表示关注。这项研究考虑了在学前班和幼儿园之前学生接触多余内容的情况。具体来说，它询问，在幼儿园中教授的技能和概念在多大程度上与一个州的公共幼儿园前课程所教授的技能和概念相辅相成，最有可能对谁进行冗余？总体而言，教师调查的结果表明，幼儿园所涵盖的语言，素养和数学内容中约有37％与K之前的内容是多余的。基本（而非高级）内容项似乎出现了最高的冗余率，包括字母和视觉单词的识别。而且，生活在贫困线以下或贫困线以下的家庭的孩子所经历的多余内容的比率明显更高。讨论了对政策，实践和未来研究的影响。