A new interinstitutional instrument for cooperative teacher preparation and curriculum development is needed, preferably to "emerge from a partnership of the old institutions with universities taking leadership under the encouraging sponsorship of state departments of education." A "cooperative clinical teaching center" would focus on both staff development (including teacher preparation and curricular and instructional innovation) and operational research. While school and college supervisory personnel can direct the center's program, classroom teachers from cooperating schools can become the chief agents to carry it out inasmuch as they can contribute ideas and skills derived from practical experience in a way that university people cannot. Cooperative clinical teaching centers are particularly well suited for achieving interinstitutional cooperation to facilitate teacher preparation and instructional improvement in the cities. Although certain essentials are basic to effecting school-university collaboration, the potentialities of collaborative effort "will make possible Dewey's dream of a laboratory approach to the education of teachers." (Included is an outline of a possible structure for a cooperative clinical teaching center.) (SG)