The Standards-based Teacher Education Project (STEP) focuses on the redesign of teacher preparation programs by aligning with national and state academic content standards and professional teaching standards, proposing that teachers who know content and how to teach it will have a positive impact on P-12 students, learning and achievement.

The Standards-based Teacher Education Project is nationally recognized and has worked more than eight years with teachers and teacher educators in over 45 programs in 7 states. The focus of STEP is the content preparation of teachers on the P-12 standards for which new teachers and their students are held accountable. Collaborative task forces of content faculty, teacher educators, and P-12 practitioners engage in alignment and analysis work to re-think curriculum design and faculty relationships in support of better P-12 content education.

On campuses, STEP institutes and supports working committees of faculty representing the Arts and Sciences, Education, two-year colleges and K-12 schools as they align teacher education with K-12 academic content standards and professional teaching standards. STEP advises campuses as they establish an evaluation process for collecting data to assess candidate content knowledge, teaching skills, and ability to improve student learning. STEP expects campuses to demonstrate that their entry and exit standards, course requirements, and the content of courses in education and the disciplines enhance teacher knowledge and skills. It also expects gateway assessments to reveal teacher candidates mastery of content knowledge, teaching skills, and ability to improve students learning.