Characteristics of colleges that are related to the achievement of undergraduates in teacher education were studied, based on study of 15 North Carolina institutions, 10 predominantly white and 5 predominantly black public universities. Student performance on the National Teacher Examinations and Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores were used as indications of achievement, which was correlated with the following college characteristics: library facilities, the age and size of the institution, curriculum, student body attributes, financial resources, and faculty characteristics. In addition, interviews were conducted in 1981 on four campuses with the chief academic officer, teacher education faculty, and students with high grade point averages. Aggregate data from the schools and interview findings indicate that faculty characteristics were the most important influence on student achievement, followed by student body attributes, appropriations directed toward faculty improvement, and curriculum design. Degrees obtained by an institution's liberal arts faculty were the most strongly related to differing achievement rates. Faculty expectations of students were related to the reputations of institutions from which faculty members earned their degrees. Prior educational background of all students on a campus appeared to be the most important student body attribute for influencing college achievement rates of students with comparable precollege learning. In addition, the average SAT score of the entire student body and the proportion of a campus's student body drawn from the top 40 percent of a high school class were highly correlated with differences in achievement. (SW)