The Blueprint for Strengthening the Music Teacher Profession (Confredo, Abril, & Adderley, 2023) underscores the persistent inequities in how students are recruited, auditioned, and enrolled in music teacher education programs. Traditional audition and assessment methods often favor students from privileged backgrounds, creating barriers for those from underrepresented communities. Audition and assessment practices in music teacher education can inadvertently perpetuate inequities, potentially limiting access for underrepresented populations. This study was designed to examine these practices among nationally-accredited music teacher preparation programs within the United States.MethodThis descriptive study utilized a questionnaire to examine audition and assessment protocols for music teacher preparation programs. The questionnaire was designed to assess audition models, culturally responsive assessments, and mentorship programs designed to promote equity in music teacher education. Descriptive analyses and thematic coding of open-response items were conducted.Results[1]1. Redesigning Auditions:· Holistic Review: Implementing a holistic review process that considers students’ backgrounds, experiences, and potential contributions to the program.· Alternative Audition Formats: Exploring alternative audition formats that allow students to showcase their musicality through community-based performances, digital submissions, or composition portfolios.· Blind Auditions: Utilizing blind audition procedures to minimize bias in performance evaluations.2. Culturally Responsive Assessments:· Diverse Repertoire: Incorporating diverse musical traditions and repertoire into assessment materials, ensuring that students from varied backgrounds feel represented and valued.· Contextualized Evaluations: Developing assessment rubrics that consider the cultural context of students’ performances and teaching practices.· Portfolio Assessments: Utilizing portfolio assessments that allow students to demonstrate their skills and knowledge in a variety of formats, including written reflections, lesson plans, and student work samples.Implications and Expected Contribution to ISMEAs the K-12 teaching and learning landscape moves closer toward spaces that privilege collaboration and creativity, it is essential that MTEs provide PMTs with opportunities to experience curricular approaches that model the relationship between the learning process in ways that are collaborative, integrative, creative, and critical (Austin & Russell, 2016; Hess, 2019; Russell & Austin, 2010). Findings reveal that transfer of learning is considered to be a fundamental goal of education; however, researchers caution that transfer of learning is often assumed on the part of learner and typically does not happen (Bransford, Brown, & Cockling, 2000; DeCorte, 2003; Haskell, 2001). This presentation addresses the urgent need for equitable audition and assessment practices, offering concrete strategies for creating a more inclusive and diverse music teacher workforce.[1] This is a synthesized results section. A complete results section will be presented at ISME 2026.