Commonly used early childhood curricula were examined to consider the degree to which they support research-based instruction for phonological awareness (PA) and phonics. A content analysis was completed for two types of curricula widely used in Head Start: overarching general curricula and lesson-based curricula, which usually provide more explicit teaching instructions. Both types of curriculum demonstrated the same pattern of findings; while all curricula included some content aligned with standards, programs differed greatly in the number of objectives and instructional strategies included for PA and phonics instruction. Overall, curricula were most likely to address earlier developing PA skills (e.g., rhyming, alliteration) with more limited attention to advanced skills that are closely linked with reading development (e.g., segmenting and blending of phonemes). Phonics instruction was not included often in any of the curricula studied, and opportunities for individualizing instruction were rare, particularly for children with special needs. Results suggest that instructional recommendations for PA and phonics in most of these commonly-used Head Start curricula, even those curricula which typically provide more explicit instruction for teachers, do not align with the instruction provided in effective intervention studies, and therefore may not be powerful enough to influence children's reading trajectories. (author abstract)