Top Tier Graduate Program in College of Education and Human Services

"U.S. News and World Report" magazine has once again named Utah State University's College of Education and Human Services among the top tier of colleges of education in the nation, but this year the college's ranking increased significantly.

In the 2008 edition of "America's Best Graduate Schools," the magazine ranked CEHS 26th in the nation overall against all graduate colleges of education. Of significant note, the CEHS was ranked second in the nation in total research dollars received by a college.

"We have been in the top 50 for the last nine years—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.

The college's second-place ranking in external funding in 2008 means that only one institution, Teachers College at Columbia University, secured more funding than CEHS faculty and staff. UCLA was third, followed by University of Minnesota and University of Washington.

"That puts our faculty near the head of some pretty elite company," she said. "The rankings once again are a reflection of and a compliment to the high quality of the college's faculty, students and staff."

Strong said a number of programs and projects have enhanced the college's growing national prominence. 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 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.