University Headquarters Releases the Top 25 Colleges for Education Programs

University Headquarters (UHQ), a top site for college rankings and student resources, has released its list of the best colleges and universities for education degrees. The site uses a proprietary rating system to evaluate the nation's top universities and colleges that have specialty programs for education and teacher preparation.

The websites rankings are based on objective data sourced from governmental and other non-biased sources. Their findings reflect a balanced assessment of data points that included the schools' retention rate, graduation rate, overall cost of education, and the acceptance rates for incoming first-year students.

The site’s authors collected the data and information from over 3,000 colleges and universities across the country to determine the overall value of the education programs offered. This is a combined list of private institutions and public universities. Among the top 25, some of the colleges that made the list were: Stanford University, Columbia University in the City of New York, Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University and University of Pennsylvania.

Primary Data Types

Some of the top pieces of data UniversityHQ relied on in its study was a school's retention rate and graduation rate. Retention rate is the percentage of students who return for their second year after a successful first year. A high retention rate indicates that students find the institution and education worthy of a second year of work and study.

Closely tied to this initial retention from the first to the second year of an undergraduate career is the graduation rate. This naturally measures the percentage of incoming students who remain with the institution and receive a diploma. A high graduation rate within a four to six-year window indicates that students invested their resources into the school to complete their degree there and received enough support from the school to do so within a reasonable time frame. Further, when a school has a stable student body that completes their education degree programs, the school can better afford to fund educational resources and thus improve its overall quality.

Studies have shown that retention and graduation rates are both reliably predicted by the school’s first-year student acceptance rate. That is, the more competitive schools tend to retain their first-year students for at least a second year and then also have a higher graduation rate. Not only are these schools more competitive, but they also seem to attract and enroll students who are particularly well-suited for their programs.

University HQ’s reliance on these data points reflects the site's dedication to evaluating schools based on the education they provide more than things like reputation or other public perceptions.

University Headquarters also took other educational factors into account such as whether the university offered courses online, student reviews, and expected salary rates for graduates. Online education is an increasingly vital part of the university experience these days, so offering core curriculum or even entire programs online is a benefit to colleges and their students. Since learning outcomes for online students are equivalent to those in traditional classrooms, institutions can expand their student body and improve retention and graduation rates by offering online education opportunities.

The UniversityHQ team recognizes that student reviews and expected salaries speak to how well a university prepares its students for a career in education and how they perceive their college experience after graduation. Higher review figures would indicate that students are pleased with their academic years and have found their experience valuable. When positive reviews coincide with higher salaries, it can be assumed that these happy graduates consistently apply their education to gain positive career outcomes.

Each student must determine the best school for them, even if that school didn't make the Top 25 list. However, those students can use similar methods to help them not only select a school, but to launch an educational plan that reflects University HQ’s educational evaluations.