College of Education ranked 26th in nation
The College of Education and Human Services was recently ranked 26th in the nation.
U.S. News & World Report magazine used a report of 1,200 graduate colleges of education to complete this ranking, Dean Carol Strong said. While USU’s college has been in the top 50 for nine years, this was its biggest jump going from 35th last year to 26th this year, Strong said.
While the rankers focus mainly on the graduate programs, Strong said they also look at the undergrad programs, as the two support each other. The magazine looks at the research done in the college, the quality of faculty, the quality of students and the number of admissions compared to degrees issued. They also talk to superintendents and get their opinions about where the best new teachers come from, Strong said.
Also increasing in ranking was the external funding received by the college. They moved from third to second, Strong said. This means only Teacher College at Columbia University got more funding than USU’s College of Education and Human Services.
“We are ahead of some impressive programs,” Strong said, citing these programs as the ones at Penn State and Texas State.
Strong said about half of this external funding was secured by the Center for Persons with Disabilities. Around 60 percent of all of the funding comes from federal agencies. Strong credited the fact that the college has a specific person who watches out for grants and proposal opportunities and then lets the professors know as one reason it is able to obtain so much money.
There isn’t a specific area or thing Strong credits to making the program so successful, but she said it is a combination of great faculty and students doing great things and this continuing cycle.
“We resolved to build a foundation, invest in research and good faculty a long time ago, and the benefits are now paying off,” Strong said.
Jim Doward, interim department head and professor, said there are a few different benefits that come from receiving such a high ranking.
“People know about the institution and the college,” Doward said.
This will help recruitment efforts and bring in quality students, he said. A snowball effect happens and more students are interested in the program. When this happens, Doward said the college administration can be a little pickier about who gets in and, as such, maintain that high level of student quality.
As rankings have been rising over the past few years, Strong said she hopes that soon USU will be in the top 25. For now she is proud of what the college has accomplished, saying there is no other college of education in the intermountain region or the desert southwest to receive and maintain such high rankings.
-albaugh@cc.usu.edu