In a recent study of the impact of the "College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards," at least 32 states cited, endorsed, framed, modeled, or adopted the C3 Framework in their social studies standards. Consequently, the expectation for almost 30 million students is that social studies teachers deliver inquiry-based social studies education. Because teaching and teacher education are inextricably linked, as more and more states expect inquiry-based learning in social studies classrooms, social studies teacher education must find ways to respond and support the instructional shift toward inquiry in schools. In this article, Alexander Cuenca sketches the merits of core practices as an organizing tool for social studies teacher education in the wake of the widespread adoption of the C3 Framework. The emerging scholarship on core practices argues that developing the professional knowledge and skills of teachers requires teacher education to coalesce its efforts around classroom-based practices that, among other conditions, demonstrate the potential to improve student achievement. As inquiry-based education becomes a viable policy outcome for social studies education, it is incumbent on social studies teacher education programs to organize themselves around the preparation of social studies teachers for inquiry-based teaching.