The Renaissance Group, a consortium of 19 universities, was created in 1989 to improve the education of teachers and to facilitate efforts to reform teacher education nationally. One of the group's first priorities has been to analyze the growth of several largely environmental conditions such as the changing structure of the American family and the prevalence of aberrant student behavior, which are changing the face of classrooms today. The group contends that because socioeconomic changes have produced a new American student, school settings and the preparation of teachers must adapt accordingly, that meeting the challenge of the new American student should become a national priority, and that inadequate attention by educators and reformers to the special characteristics and needs of this new generation of students may be the weak link in the solution to the problem of educational reform. This booklet identifies and analyzes the following priority areas of need: (1) early childhood education; (2) science and mathematics education; (3) minority and multicultural programs; (4) instructional technology; and (5) interagency collaboration. Appendices provide a list of Renaissance group member institutions, and 12 key principles which, the group believes, undergird effective teacher education programs. (LL)