This digest is drawn from "The Role of the Community College in Teacher Education" (New Directions for Community Colleges, Spring 2003). It examines trends in teacher education in the community colleges, including building partnerships and articulation agreements with baccalaureate-granting institutions, designing new associate degree and community college baccalaureate degree programs, and gaining accreditation. By 2010, the United States will need between 2 and 2.5 million more elementary and secondary school teachers to enter the classroom and assume the challenges of public schools. While four-year colleges and universities continue to offer comprehensive teacher preparation programs, community colleges have expanded their programs in the field of teacher education in recent years in order to provide additional options for teacher training. Building partnerships with four-year institutions is central to the community college effort in teacher education. State-level policy coordination is another key element in the process. Some states have funded innovative teacher education programs to encourage collaboration between public community colleges and state universities, as well as, in some cases, K-12 school districts. Community colleges have also begun to experiment with degree programs, although this approach concerns some at the state level, who suggest that the mission of the community college can infringe on the mission of the four-year institution in this case. (Contains 10 references.) (NB)