Due to increased public school accountability, heightened scrutiny of higher education, ongoing demographic shifts, and lean economic times, many in higher education are turning to the federal grant system for financial support to facilitate needed program improvements because other funding sources have been diminished or eliminated. Teacher education programs, in particular, need to revise their programs to better prepare teacher candidates to meet the sociocultural, linguistic, and academic needs of Latino and ELL students--the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population--in K-12 school settings. Findings from this case study of a five-year federal grant that our university was awarded are based on semi-structured interviews with key participants in the grant-writing and implementation processes and participant observation. Findings identify structural issues at two levels that are potential barriers to meaningful program improvement: macro issues embedded within the federal grant system itself and micro issues that occur at the university level.