Our study looked inside the classroom door of pre-K programs in the relatively stringent policy context of Tulsa, Oklahoma. We investigated three primary research questions: 1) What are children’s experiences with regard to classroom emotional and instructional climate and exposure to academic instruction in Tulsa’s pre-K classrooms? 2) Are the Tulsa pre-K classrooms characterized by higher-quality classroom environments and greater instructional time for four-year-old children as compared to comparable classrooms in other states? 3) Do program auspice (Head Start or TPS pre-K) and teacher characteristics and practices predict variation in classroom processes in Tulsa’s publicly-funded four-year-old classrooms? (author abstract)