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To focus directly on learning outcomes-first by the trainee, then by the student being taught by the trainee-is not the usual practice of teacher education faculty. Present practices in teacher education frequently result in a curriculum committee or academic policy committee expending time and energy discussing how well a course description is written, what concept or idea will be taught, or even whether the list of competencies described are accurately or correctly written. This attention to detail misses the point. The leadership of a curriculum committee might better focus on what teaching abilities will be taught and how these teaching abilities affect learners. The curriculum committee is responsible for assuring that teacher education programs are of high quality. The question remains: What is quality?If teacher educators-in contrast to liberal arts faculty, who focus on the development and nurturing of intellectual humanists-focus on the preparation of competent professionals, then quality is best defined in terms of how the teaching skills learned by the teacher trainees are used in the classroom and how they influence learning. To focus directly on learning outcomes-first by the trainee, then by the student taught by the trainee-is not the usual practice of teacher education faculty. Rather they focus on the quality of the training model, the demands of certification, the rationale for an activity.Teaching is the reason teacher education takes place.Yet few programs of continuous research in teaching are integrated into ongoing teacher education programs. Groups organized to build or rebuild colleges of education have as their primary criteria for success the quality of the group interaction or the quality of the organization.Norms such as consensus on action and clear communication become the measures of group or individual performance. While these are important, the effect of teaching practices is the more appropriate target for evaluation (Schmuck, 1977). Such a new attitude and target requires the collection of different information and its analysis by the various decision-making groups: Task Forces for Improved Teacher Education, Curriculum Committees, or even Teacher Education Faculty Groups. Such learning targets require the collection of information about: (1) learners' learning needs; (2) effective teaching practices to address these needs; (3) teacher training needs. While some efforts have been ongoing to develop reliable and useful tools for measuring these factors (Walberg, 1974), there is little hard evidence about interrelations among these factors. Leadership is needed for faculty in two areas: 1. those who would develop objective instruments to measure the effect of training programs on trainees;2. those who would begin to measure the effect of their teacher education programs on trainee achievement and performance. As groups committed to improved programs, teacher education faculties should build time into their ongoing schedules for this measure and analysis. They should set aside tim...

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