A history is presented of the External Assessment Pilot Project of California's Commission on Teacher Preparation and Licensing. Carried out from 1974 to 1979, the project assessed teacher education programs at California higher education institutions. After giving the background of the project, including the creation of the commission, the authors describe the assessment concept, which involved assessment by program constituents and comparison with original program proposals to identify discrepancies. They outline the project's eight-step assessment procedure, including assessor recruitment and training, an institutional self-assessment report, the assessors' report, comparison of the two reports, a panel review, and the panel's report to the commission. The authors then narrate the implementation of the External Assessment Pilot Project in each of the 5 school years, noting problems encountered with teacher educators, assessor training and attrition, politics, and time, and explaining the steps taken after the first 2 years to alleviate the problems. After 1979, the project name was dropped but the commission retained several of the practices. The final section of the report discusses the project's strengths (such as constituent involvement and ongoing institutional self-evaluation) and weaknesses (including emphasis on discrepancies and lack of statewide criteria). (RW)