This paper examines the function of cases and case methods in teacher education and professional development, hypothesizing that educators and administrators can better make sense of educational standards and link them to their daily school and classroom lives if they can identify cases in which those standards are inherent. One National Partnership for Excellence and Accountability in Teaching (NPEAT) partner used the Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (INTASC) principles as a framework for analyzing both cases and personal experience, emphasizing teachers who grapple with classroom dilemmas with no easy answers. Over 2 years, the project applied case methods to support new and veteran teachers in learning to bridge the gap between the abstract principles embedded in teaching standards and classroom teaching realities. Participants analyzed how INTASC standards interacted with dilemmas and practices portrayed in various case narratives describing the realities of teachers' classroom lives. They collaborated with NPEAT partners and other educators to develop new cases representing domains of practice covered by standards for which no clarifying cases yet existed and to expand the cadre of teacher educators and staff developers who could effectively use standards-based case teaching practices through a series of training institutes and an interactive Web site. A draft casebook was also developed. (Contains 7 references.) (SM)