What's needed to improve teacher-training programs?

I remember how I was so unprepared, even though I had quite a bit of experience with kids and even a year of substituting under my belt. There are a lot of things like preparing the environment, organizing materials, teaching students procedures, and conducting parent conferences that I had to learn through trial and error. More time observing a variety of schools and teachers, as well as time spent practicing skills such as communicating with parents would be helpful.
A few years ago I took a class at my local community college in the early childhood education department on designing classroom environments and it has been invaluable. I wish I had, had the opportunity to have taken that class when I was in my credential program.

Last year in my district teachers were pulled out frequently for training (not this year, no money for subs). It was good for the teachers, but the students were left with substitutes and assistants. I believe a better idea for district level training would be to hire teachers for 12 months, at the salary we are now paid, and do all the training during the summer. Additionally, teachers need to know how to apply all the data that is collected, thru testing and other avenues, to their day-to-day teaching. Otherwise they are doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.