NC State’s College of Education is tied at No. 1 in North Carolina and No. 27 in the nation in the U.S. News & World Report’s 2025 Best Graduate Schools: Education rankings released April 8, 2025. That is the College of Education’s highest-ever ranking in the Best Education Schools publication, and an improvement of three spots over last year and 32 spots over the past decade. Among public colleges, NC State’s College of Education tied at No. 10 in the nation.
Additionally, the college was ranked in three of the U.S. News’ education specialty categories: No. 19 in Higher Education Administration, No. 20 in Secondary Teacher Education and No. 30 in Curriculum and Instruction.
“It is rewarding to see this growth in recognition of our college’s commitment to prepare extraordinary educators, solve important educational problems and provide outreach and engagement to communities,” said College of Education Dean Paola Sztajn. “The continued rise in rankings is a reflection of our dedication to our land-grant mission and the ongoing hard work of our faculty, staff, students and alumni.”
For its 2025 edition, U.S. News surveyed 476 schools and ranked them based on research activity (research expenditures and average expenditures per faculty member); quality assessment (peer and educational professional assessments); faculty resources (doctoral degrees granted, student-faculty ratio, faculty with education-related awards or editorships, and graduate degrees granted-faculty ratio); and acceptance rate.
As reported by U.S. News, the total research expenditures of the College of Education’s faculty and researchers averaged $35.82 million over fiscal years 2024 and 2023—the most of any college of education in North Carolina and the 22nd most in the nation among both public and private universities. The college also awarded more doctoral degrees than any college of education in North Carolina in 2023 and 2024, and continued to score among the highest in peer and educational professional assessments.
Earlier this year, the College of Education ranked No. 20 in the nation in U.S. News’ 2025 Best Online Master’s in Education Programs rankings announced Jan. 21, 2025. In those same rankings, the College of Education ranked No. 1 in North Carolina and No. 7 in the nation for online education programs for veterans.