Teacher ineffectiveness in elementary education is to a large degree due to inadequate preservice education in content areas, and this should be a concern of teacher educators. Statistical data supports this contention, e.g., 275 of 389 students in a mathematics methods course could not work a simple percent problem. Although some professors would maintain that the task of teacher education is to teach methodology, experience shows that many teachers lack basic understanding of the concepts included in the elementary school mathematics curriculum. Some of the options available for solving the problem were presented in a questionnaire to 51 colleges of education. These suggestions and the percentage of favorable responses for each were: (1) restrictive examinations in content areas before admittance to related methods courses (34%); (2) diagnostic entrance examinations followed by remediation before admittance to related methods courses (59%); (3) prerequisite courses in related content areas (93%); (4) special content courses for elementary education majors (85%); (5) team teaching of the methods courses and/or integrated content and methods courses (52%); (6) competency based programs (71%); (7) methods instructors include content in their methods courses (63%); (8) increased credit hours for methods courses (26%); (9) tutoring services to aid in content mastery (no percentage given); (10) laboratory experiences in classrooms (81%). Whatever the option, colleges of education must address the problem if their curriculum is to be effective in preparing teachers. (DS)