U.S. rankings released: College still No. 1 in elementary and secondary education!

April 23, 2009

Check MSU News for the university-wide release, plus a VIDEO about what makes the College of Education a leader in teacher education.

See more details about our ranking categories or visit the U.S. News site for the nationwide listings.

For an impressive 15th consecutive year now, the College of Education has been ranked No. 1 in the nation for elementary and secondary education!

The U.S. News & World Report’s 2010 edition of “America’s Best Graduate Schools,” released April 23, also highlights the college’s capacity to produce high-level scholarship and top-notch graduates in several other disciplines.

A total of seven educational specialties at Michigan State University placed within the top-10 based on a survey of more than 275 education school deans across the country. They include rehabilitation counseling, which retained its No. 1 ranking (from 2007), curriculum and instruction (No. 2), higher education administration (No. 4), educational psychology (No. 5) and administration/supervision (No. 8). In addition, the College of Education was ranked 17th overall.

“For 15 years now, these rankings have recognized our continuing commitment to address critical issues in education through both high quality research and teaching,” said Carole Ames, dean of the College of Education. “We take pride in our faculty and programs that prepare effective, global-minded educators for the challenges of the future.”

MSU’s undergraduate teacher preparation program, including its yearlong post-B.A. internship, is the centerpiece of the Department of Teacher Education’s work. Chairperson Suzanne Wilson said faculty and graduate students focus on improving teaching and learning through an equal dedication to cutting-edge research and intensive preparation programs – all with close ties to elementary and secondary classrooms. They also collaborate with colleagues across campus who represent the content areas teachers must know, such as English and mathematics.

“Our department is dominated by research that tries to figure out real-world problems that practitioners are dealing with,” Wilson said. “So how do you bring curriculum or reform into your school and make it work? How do you lead a school during a time when No Child Left Behind is being changed?

“Those real-world problems that require being in practice and in the trenches with people who are in charge of solving those problems is a hallmark of the research we do in the department and, I think, the research we do more generally in the college.”