This paper intends to demonstrate how within the current contentious environment for teacher education in the U.S., two small teacher preparation programs conducted a voluntary coordinated long-term self-evaluation study, that partially responded to external accountability pressures by the Federal administration, state agencies and various private and non-governmental organizations. In particular, we focus on findings about graduates' preparation experiences and sense of preparedness for teaching, as well as how they perceived their faculty strengths and weaknesses and programs' effectiveness. Such an in-depth examination of graduates' perspectives can serve not only for internal self-study purposes, but also as an example to other preparation programs looking to meet external accountability pressures, while preserving a voice in the process and developing meaningful tools for self-assessment and improvement.