Moving Up in the Rankings

Utah State University’s College of Education and Human Services has moved up once again in “U.S. News and World Report” magazine’s latest rankings.

In the 2009 edition of “America's Best Graduate Schools, the magazine ranked the college 24th in the nation overall against all graduate colleges of education. Last year the college was 26th. In addition, the CEHS was ranked third in the nation in total research dollars received. The college’s Department of Special Education and Rehabilitation’s special education program ranked 20th in the nation, and the rehabilitation counseling program itself placed 15th out of the 120 programs across the United States.

 

“This is the 10th straight year we have been among the top colleges in the country — the only college of education in the Intermountain region and the Desert Southwest to have achieved and sustained such a ranking,” said Carol Strong, dean of the college. “There are about 1,200 education programs at colleges and universities in the United States, so this ranking means we are among the elite.”

 

Strong said the ranking means the college is in the top 2 percent of all graduate colleges of education in the nation, and the rankings are a reflection of the across-the-board excellence throughout the ranks of faculty, students and staff in the college.

 

Highlights this past year include major efforts in autism research, arts education, communicative disorders, hearing screening for newborns, and pioneering open courseware education around the world. The Center for Persons with Disabilities celebrated its 35th anniversary this past year and continues to make its mark around the nation and even the world, she said. And the Emma Eccles Jones Center for Early Childhood Education is leading efforts to teach young children how to read.

 

The college received a $25 million donation in December 2007 from the Emma Eccles Jones Foundation, a gift that will be used to construct an additional education and research building and to fund a number of endowed professorships in early childhood education.

 

Strong said Emma Eccles Jones, at one time a kindergarten teacher in Logan, dedicated her life to educating teachers and children, and the significant gift reflects the foundation’s recognition of the college’s continuing commitment to her legacy and to making a difference in peoples’ lives.

 

In addition to research prowess, the college excels in teaching also, Strong said. The Department of Communicative Disorders and Deaf Education recently received USU’s prestigious Departmental Teaching Award, an award that honors one department a year that models outstanding achievements in extraordinary instruction and teaching.

 

Ben Lignugaris/Kraft, department head of Special Education and Rehabilitation, said the department’s national reputation has grown and is continuing to grow. Its faculty are active in national organizations, and the doctoral program has become more selective even as its numbers of graduates have increased.

 

“We’re proud of our accomplishments, of course, and we’re proud of where we heading,” he said. “But these rankings show that others are looking at us and seeing those same high standards of quality we demand of ourselves. If you look at that Top 20 list, you see the best of the best, so it is rewarding to see our name among the elite.”

 

Julie Smart, director of the rehabilitation counseling program, said the program ranked highly for a number of reasons. It has received almost $5 million in federal training grants over a five-year period. This is a significant amount, especially considering that USU’s program is one of the few in the nation not associated with a medical school.

 

USU’s program is notable in that it has the oldest distance rehabilitation counseling program in the country. It also is home to the prestigious National Clearinghouse of Rehabilitation Training Materials, the clearinghouse for all training materials developed in the United States with federal dollars. And, finally, the textbook written by Smart is used in the nation by most rehab programs, nursing programs and disabilities studies programs, bringing visibility across the nation.

 

“USU is seen as a leader in the field,” she said. “We are a small program when you look at numbers of faculty – but we are a small program with a powerful impact. We are making significant progress in the field, which means we are impacting peoples’ lives, and it is extremely rewarding to be part of that progress.”

 

Contact: College of Education and Human Services (435) 797-1437