The 2001 edition of the Best Graduate Schools from U.S. News & World Report released its rankings of graduate schools of education yesterday. Teachers College was ranked third behind Harvard and Stanford, same as last year.

This year, the rankings of education schools focused on their research missions. Harvard received an overall score of 100, Stanford 99, and TC, 97. The fourth ranked school is UCLA with an overall score of 90.

According to Scott Schnackenberg, TC's Director of Institutional Studies, "our spot is driven by our reputation with academics and superintendents, the number of doctoral degrees we produce---more than any other school---and the gross quantity of our research dollars."

Stanford was rated highest among academics with a reputation score of 4.6 (out of 5), followed by Teachers College and Harvard with scores of 4.4. TC was ranked second in the reputation score of superintendents with a score of 4.4 as compared to Harvard's 4.6. Stanford was rated third with a score of 4.3 in the superintendent category.

TC granted 175 Ph.Ds and Ed.Ds in 2000 as compared to Harvard's 58 and Stanford's 29.

In funded research TC raised $20.3 million, Harvard $13.6 million, and Stanford $11.2 million in 2000. But when translated into thousands of dollars of funded research by faculty member, TC ranked second with $406.2, Stanford ranked third with $385.1 and Harvard ranked first with $503.6.

The rankings also included the 10 areas or specialties ranked best by education school deans. Teachers College improved in one area-Curriculum and Instruction-moving from three to two.

In an AP Online article about critics who think the annual rankings have become too important, both to prospective students and schools, President Levine said some schools are going harder after research grants, and doing more to get the students they accept to actually enroll because those are the magazine's criteria to judge them. Meanwhile, image-conscious universities may also take fewer chances on students with less-than-sterling admission test scores. "Frequently that translates to minorities," Levine added. Despite his criticism, after hearing TC ranked third in education programs, he commented, "No. 1 is nicer."

Download the US News report for the rankings, specialties, and the methodology statement. You will need Adobe Acrobat to view this file.

Link to US News.

When possible, the News Bureau provides a link to article summaries, a link is always provided to the online source. Not all online sources archive information and some charge a fee for older material.

Published Tuesday, Sep. 18, 2001