AAU institutions, as the nation's premier research universities, share a particular obligation to help prospective teachers experience firsthand what it means to do science rather than just learn it. Since many K-12 teachers have never had such an encounter with real science, they can benefit greatly from being part of a research experience in an AAU university. This might be either part of a summer program or a school year opportunity..

Over the past year and a half, I conducted a project to qualitatively review undergraduate research at six AAU institutions: Caltech, Emory, MIT, Rutgers, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the University of Washington...The purpose of the project was to characterize undergraduate research at these institutions; to identify issues, questions, opportunities, and barriers affecting undergraduate research in the sciences and engineering and in the arts and humanities..

It is time for America-and America's universities-to make a new, sustained commitment to teachers and, hence, to the millions of students whose lives they shape...The research universities we represent intend to work with and, in many cases, already are working with the schools to strengthen the preparation of new teachers in our universities and to contribute more substantially to the continuing professional development of in-service teachers..

A chart that gives an Overview of Teacher Education Output at AAU Universities

In 1994, the Association of American Universities...asked its member institutions for information about current undergraduate education efforts on their campuses. Fifty-three institutions responded to this request. The document that follows is a summary of the information provided in those responses..