In an effort to understand what makes a student teaching experience strong, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) has undertaken this comprehensive review. Over a period of two years, NCTQ researchers examined the student teaching programs of a stratified random sample of 134 higher education institutions across the United States, with at least one institution in each state. The researchers began by collecting an extensive range of documents that would inform the structure of these programs, amplified by several stages of feedback from officials in the institutions themselves, a survey of local school principals who receive student teachers from the selected programs and five case studies based on campus visits. Together, these research strategies provide a comprehensive policy and on-the-ground picture of the student teaching landscape. Overall, their analysis raises some serious concerns about whether student teaching, examined in the aggregate, is adding nearly the value that it can and should. Looking at student teaching practices across institutions, four findings stand out: (1) There are neither enough qualified cooperating teachers nor is there the need for new elementary teachers to justify the high numbers of student teachers that institutions insist on placing each year; (2) Institutions lack clear, rigorous criteria for the selection of cooperating teachers--either on paper or in practice; (3) Institutions convey a strong sense of powerlessness in their relationships with school districts; and (4) Institutions do not take advantage of important opportunities to provide guidance and feedback to student teachers. [For the full report, "Student Teaching in the United States," see ED521916.]