An instrument was designed to allow respondents to freely express their opinions concerning the major learning problems of students in the public schools, the quality and nature of their teacher education programs, and their retrospective views of courses which would have met their needs better than the ones which were taken. The instrument used to collect the data was an open-ended opinionnaire which was distributed to all public school administrative units within a 24-county area of southwest Missouri. Administrators were requested to distribute the instrument to faculty members and to some students as well. The 158 respondents indicated, among other things, that their preparation was not adequate for teaching the expressive and receptive communication skills, for teaching children appropriate questioning skills, for matching materials with children's reading levels, or for organizing classrooms for instruction in reading. Other conclusions drawn from this questionnaire are discussed and specific recommendations are made. (TS)