California needs thousands of teachers for its preschool program. Here's what it's like to be one

All 4-year-olds in California can now go to school for free in a grade called transitional kindergarten, or TK.

There’s a lot riding on the success of California’s TK program. Supporters hope that a year of learning through play will give a boost to children who may not otherwise have access to preschool. Districts facing declining enrollment hope that a surge of new students will improve their financial outlook.

Whether TK works at such a large scale depends on whether there are enough teachers qualified to work with children who have unique needs. Researchers estimate that California schools will need nearly 12,000 teachers to make good on the expansion of TK into every school district, as is required beginning this school year.

The state does offers multiple paths toward teaching in a TK classroom, including a new teaching credential introduced in May 2024 that lets educators teach TK through third grade, "designed and intended to help meet the demand for qualified teachers," the state said.

Thus far, uptake has been slow. Just over 400 educators have earned this credential, according to data provided to LAist by the Commission on Teacher Credentialing. About 200 more people are working toward fulfilling this requirement.

Many educators have said the process to get credentialed for TK can be frustrating, especially for preschool teachers without experience in the public school system. The state said it doesn’t have data on how many teachers are coming over from the private preschool sector or from upper grades in public school.

In conversation with LAist, educators who have made their way into TK classrooms say they're glad they did.

In search of more structure 

At Price Elementary School in the city of Downey, Samantha Elliott is teaching TK for the first time this year.

However, because she’s taught preschool in the past, she runs her classroom with ease — and with the help of a state-mandated aide.

Elliott earned a credential and bachelor’s degree in early childhood development at Cal State Fullerton. This made it possible to move into TK without having to take on more coursework.

“Preschool was great,” she said, “but [at that level, students are] still learning [the] fundamentals of how to be a human, in a sense. [In] TK, we’re focusing a little bit more on academics, and I really was excited to teach the kids and get an early influence on their educational lives.”

Elliot keeps her students engaged throughout the day with music. She uses songs to help them learn their ABCs, colors, shapes — even their sense of time.

Often, Elliot has her students get up and dance. This helps the students get the wiggles out — it’s also part of learning through play.

Samantha Elliott made the switch to TK after teaching preschool for two years.

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Julia Barajas

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LAist

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At Smith Elementary in Lawndale, teacher Lauren Bush lets parents know that while it may look like kids are just having fun, they’re experiencing a lesson that she’s crafted carefully.

“You see kids playing with dinosaurs,” she said. “I see kids sorting by color, doing eye-hand coordination and visual discrimination. I see them using their fine motor skills.”

Bush has over two decades of classroom experience and has been teaching TK for three years, but she still spends a lot of time making sure her lessons are just right. When people see her working nights and weekends, they’re often perplexed. “Why work so much?” they wonder aloud, she said. “You're just babysitting.”

Bush gently corrects them: “I'm, like, ‘Oh my gosh, no! You have to have a special degree to teach TK.’”

In search of something less rigid 

Over at Marguerita Elementary School in Alhambra, teacher Lisa Vuong is working toward earning that special credential. On top of working full time, she’s fulfilling her required coursework at Pasadena City College. (Statewide, 13 institutions, including Cal State Long Beach and Cal State Dominguez Hills offer the new credential.)

Vuong is already credentialed to teach kindergarten through eighth grade. She also has 22 years of classroom experience and a master's in education. “But this is a whole different beast,” she said.

She means that in the best way. Even though she comes in with a lesson plan, she said, being a TK teacher often means having to improvise.

“You have kind of a platform that you launch off from, and the kids go in 18 million different directions,” she said.

When Vuong taught upper grades, she spent a lot of time making photocopies and stressing out about her students’ performance on standardized tests. TK — which is not graded or subject to those assessments — gives her a sense of freedom.

“I always say it doesn't even feel like a job,” she said. “ I don't wanna discredit the whole program or anything, but it's just so much fun.”