The National Commission on teaching and America's Future (NCTAF) has prepared two reports: What Matters Most: Teaching for America's Future (1996), and Doing What Matters Most: Investing in Quality Teaching (1997). These reports put forth a "call to action" to address some of the major issues facing the education arena. In September 1996, NCTAF announced the primary goal for education: "By the year 2006, America will provide all students in the country with what should be their educational birthright: access to competent, caring, and qualified teachers" (NCTAF, 1996). One of the major components of the reports focused on teacher preparation in preservice education programs, and a call for educational reform to prepare high quality teachers for our schools. Characteristics of Contextual Teaching and Learning (CT&L) and components of teacher education programs were infused into a framework, based upon comments and suggestions from experts who attended a CT&L design conference in May 1998. The components of teacher education programs were identified, primarily from the work of Howey and Zimpher (1989), with some input from Katz and Rahts (1982). The purpose of this aspect of the Contextual Teaching and Learning Symposium is to provide the theoretical basis for the CT&L framework, further explaining the characteristics of the framework and the components of a teacher education program infused within this study. The theoretical framework supporting this study is based upon empirical evidence describing quality teacher preparation, and ongoing research on educational policy. Information gathered for this aspect of the symposium was gleaned from an in-depth review of the literature, personal interviews with experts in CT&L, and a thorough examination of the Contextual Teaching and Learning Framework utilized in this study. Results of this section will consist of a description of the empirical evidence supporting the Contextual Teaching and Learning framework, as well as the final product, the CT&L Framework. This framework was utilized for program reform and further study of the impact of the CT&L, which acted as the foundation for the study of a physical education teacher education program, and the perspectives on faculty and prospective teachers. Five teacher education programs were identified, which incorporated the CT&L framework into their teacher preparation process, were identified from the literature. A summary of lessons learned, and the enablers and barriers of program change, will be shared in this introductory session.