The School of Education at the University of Pittsburgh is discontinuing its undergraduate program in 1990 and will prepare only postbaccalaureate students as teachers beginning in 1990-91. The Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program had been developed as a one-year program for liberal arts graduates who want to become teachers. In this context, two fundamental assumptions made by those proposing a fifth-year teacher certification program were investigated: (1) the assumption that undergraduates in Arts and Sciences bring more content area knowledge and expertise to teaching than undergraduate education majors; and (2) that one year of practical experience (such as an internship) will prepare students to become teachers as well as or better than four years of practical experience during the undergraduate years, which include one semester of student teaching. In this study, the relative academic skills of these two groups at the university were compared in reading, writing, math, general knowledge, and professional knowledge. The knowledge and skills of a sample of undergraduate elementary preservice teachers in teaching reading comprehension were also investigated. Results did not indicate meaningful differences in knowledge or ability between undergraduates and fifth year students; MAT students, however scored significantly higher than undergraduate students in professional knowledge. Although background experiences, educational experience, and field experiences of interns and student teachers differed, there appeared to be no great difference between the teaching knowledge possessed and applied by the student teachers and that of the interns. (JD)