UW–Madison’s School of Education and several of its programs are rated among the very best in the nation according to the 2022 U.S. News & World Report Best Graduate Schools rankings released Tuesday, March 30.
UW-Madison is home to the fourth-ranked school of education in the nation — marking the eighth straight year it has been rated among the top five. In addition, this is the 22nd time in the past 23 years the School of Education has maintained a spot in the top 10 nationally.
In the overall education school rankings, private institutions Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania tied for the top spot, with the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) at No. 3. The rest of the Top 10 is: No. 4 UW-Madison; No. 5 Vanderbilt University; New York University and Stanford University tied for No. 6; No. 8 Northwestern University; and Teachers College, Columbia University, and the University of Michigan tied for No. 9. Last year, UW–Madison also ranked No. 4, a spot it shared with UCLA and Vanderbilt.
In addition, nine graduate specialty programs housed within the UW–Madison School of Education are ranked among the Top 10 nationally.
“We are excited and honored to again be recognized as one of the leading schools of education in the United States,” says Dean Diana Hess, the Karen A. Falk Distinguished Chair of Education. “Seeing so many of our departments and graduate programs being so highly regarded is a recognition of our many talented and committed faculty, staff, students, and alumni who make our School of Education such a special place. A great strength of ours is the number of highly ranked programs.”
The nine graduate education specialty programs ranked among the top 10 and housed within the School of Education according to the 2022 U.S. News Rankings are:
No. 2 — Secondary Teacher Education
No. 3 — Educational Administration
No. 3 — Educational Psychology
No. 3 — Student Counseling
No. 4 — Curriculum and Instruction
No. 4 — Elementary Teacher Education
No. 6 — Education Policy
No. 6 — Special Education
No. 10 — Higher Education Administration
U.S. News does not rank all specialty programs across all disciplines every year. For example, last year’s 2021 Best Graduate Schools Rankings had the School of Education’s Printmaking program (Art Department) ranked No. 1, and UW-Madison was ranked 15th in the Best Art Schools ratings. Also last year, the School of Education’s Occupational Therapy program (Department of Kinesiology) checked in at No. 17. Similarly, in the 2020 ratings the School of Education’s rehabilitation counseling program, housed in the Department of Rehabilitation Psychology and Special Education, ranked No. 1.
To calculate its overall 2022 Best Graduate Schools rankings, U.S. News utilized survey results returned from 277 institutions that grant doctoral degrees. These surveys collected both expert opinions about program excellence and statistical indicators. This information is used to calculate rankings based on a weighted average of 10 measures. These measures include: peer assessments based on surveys filled out by education school deans and deans of graduate studies; professional assessments based on responses from school superintendents, school hiring contacts and professionals who hire people who graduate from graduate education programs; student selectivity measures, such as GRE scores and acceptance rates; faculty resource measures; and research activity. (Learn more about the U.S. News methodology.)
Education specialty program rankings, U.S. News explains, are based solely on nominations by education school deans and deans of graduate studies at education schools from the list of schools surveyed. They selected up to 15 top programs in each specialty area to rank. Schools that received the most nominations in each specialty area were numerically ranked in descending order of nominations.