Abstract: Teacher education is a cause with public beneficial, professional and marketable characteristics; the coordination and balance of these characteristics cannot be guaranteed only by depending on government and markets. During the transition period of teacher education since 1980’s in the United States, because of the limited and improper role of the government and the excessive and blind role of markets, there are many problems appeared in teacher education. In order to coordinate the relationship between government and markets, balance the multiple characteristics of teacher education, and optimize the teacher education governance, some intermediary organizations in the United States have been more and more involved in the domain of teacher education and are playing their roles at different degrees in the professional management, policy buffering, and research consultation. Although the development of the intermediary organizations of American teacher education has its institutional and cultural background different from those of China, the development of these teacher education intermediary organizations and the roles they are playing have some common characteristics, perhaps we can gain some enlightenments from the historic experiences and lessons of the intermediary organizations in the United States.

Key words: governance, teacher education, intermediary organizations