Many pre-K teachers across the nation are expected to earn a bachelor's degree, similar to their peers teaching older children. Yet salaries and benefits remain consistently lower for pre-K teachers than for elementary school teachers. Increasingly, compensation parity is perceived as an achievable policy goal rather than a lofty ideal, yet there is confusion across the field about what parity means. This brief develops a framework for understanding compensation parity in contrast to other forms of compensation improvement. Applying this framework to current state efforts to move toward compensation parity reveals a great deal of variability across states. While some states approach compensation parity, at least for some pre-K teachers, and several states have pursued parity in salaries only, the majority of states do not have any explicit policies intended to move toward parity for pre-K teachers. This brief is the first in a series of materials on pre-K compensation. [For the other reports in this series, see "Teacher Compensation Parity Policies and State-Funded Pre-K Programs" (ED591987) and "Strategies in Pursuit of Pre-K Teacher Compensation Parity: Lessons from Seven States and Cities" (ED591985).]