Two major recommendations are offered to teacher education reform efforts: (1) increased collaboration for both leadership and program planning in teacher education; and (2) changes in the roles of public schools and universities in the preparation of teachers. The recommendations emerged intially from a study that focused on discrepancies between practices taught in univerity coursework and practices observed in clinical settings. The recommendations were expanded and reinforced by a second study of collaborative program planning by university and school district representatives. This paper describes six categories of documented discrepancies between practices taught in the content of university coursework and practices observed during field experience, with description of resulting dilemmas experienced by student teachers; and describes changes in teacher education programs that resulted from collaborative planning to address the dilemmas. Findings of the two studies indicate that improvement of practice requires collaboration in the context of mutual respect and understanding, with parity of leadership and shared decision making. It is suggested that in order to improve teacher education programs, program planners listen to the voices of both preservice and experienced teachers. (LL)