This NRC project proposes to explore an improved data system about teacher preparation that follows up on a prior NRC report, "Preparing Teachers: Building Evidence for Sound Policy". Activities conducted through the project include a set of commissioned papers that develop proposals for the essential components of such an indicator system,critiques of the current state of teacher preparation,a planning workshop to explore the ideas in those papers, and a panel presentation at the American Educational Research Association (AERA) annual meeting to discuss the proposals, critiques and possible revisions to the framework. The project is carried out by the NRC's Board on Testing and Assessment and the Board on Science Education with input from the AERA leadership. It is anticipated that following this exploratory work, a larger project would be developed.