{"id":101263,"date":"2026-04-07T10:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T14:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ced.ncsu.edu\/news\/?p=101263"},"modified":"2026-04-07T10:00:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T14:00:20","slug":"a-new-high-nc-states-college-of-education-1-in-n-c-26-in-nation-in-u-s-news-2026-best-education-school-rankings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ced.ncsu.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/07\/a-new-high-nc-states-college-of-education-1-in-n-c-26-in-nation-in-u-s-news-2026-best-education-school-rankings\/","title":{"rendered":"A New High: NC State\u2019s College of Education #1 in N.C., #26 in Nation in U.S. News\u2019 2026 Best Education School Rankings"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NC State\u2019s College of Education is ranked No. 1 in North Carolina and tied for No. 26 in the nation in the U.S. News & World Report<\/em>\u2019s 2026 Best Graduate Schools: Education rankings released April 7, 2026. That national ranking is an improvement of one spot over last year, making it the second straight year that the College of Education has set a new high in the Best Education Schools rankings. Among public colleges, NC State\u2019s College of Education tied at No. 7 in the nation\u2014its highest-ever. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, the college ranked in No. 22 in Higher Education Administration in one of the education specialty categories. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur College of Education will celebrate 100 years in 2027, and these rankings are one reflection of the progress and impact we’ve made over all these years, bringing together amazing faculty, staff, students, alumni and partners who embrace our shared vision to expand educational access and success for all learners,\u201d said College of Education Dean Paola Sztajn.  “I am grateful to all members of our community for their hard work and commitment to preparing extraordinary educators, conducting research that is impactful and engaging communities where they are. I\u2019m also glad to see that their work continues to be widely recognized for its transformative impact across North Carolina and beyond, and I\u2019m excited to be launching our next 100 years having accomplished so much already.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For its 2026 edition, U.S. News<\/em> surveyed 510 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 student selectivity or acceptance rate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As reported by U.S. News<\/em>, the total research expenditures<\/a> of the College of Education\u2019s faculty and researchers averaged $35.08 million over fiscal years 2024 and 2025\u2014the 23rd most in the nation among both public and private universities. That dollar amount\u2014which is a way to measure research productivity\u2014is about $12 million more than the next college of education in North Carolina ($23.19 million).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NC State\u2019s College of Education also awarded 111 doctoral degrees in education in 2024 and 2025\u2014the most of any in North Carolina and more than double the next college (46). Additionally, the college continued to score among the highest in peer and educational professional assessments at both the state and national level.  <\/p>\n","protected":false,"raw":"\n\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NC State\u2019s College of Education is ranked No. 1 in North Carolina and tied for No. 26 in the nation in the U.S. News & World Report<\/em>\u2019s 2026 Best Graduate Schools: Education rankings released April 7, 2026. That national ranking is an improvement of one spot over last year, making it the second straight year that the College of Education has set a new high in the Best Education Schools rankings. Among public colleges, NC State\u2019s College of Education tied at No. 7 in the nation\u2014its highest-ever. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, the college ranked in No. 22 in Higher Education Administration in one of the education specialty categories. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur College of Education will celebrate 100 years in 2027, and these rankings are one reflection of the progress and impact we've made over all these years, bringing together amazing faculty, staff, students, alumni and partners who embrace our shared vision to expand educational access and success for all learners,\u201d said College of Education Dean Paola Sztajn.  \"I am grateful to all members of our community for their hard work and commitment to preparing extraordinary educators, conducting research that is impactful and engaging communities where they are. I\u2019m also glad to see that their work continues to be widely recognized for its transformative impact across North Carolina and beyond, and I\u2019m excited to be launching our next 100 years having accomplished so much already.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For its 2026 edition, U.S. News<\/em> surveyed 510 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 student selectivity or acceptance rate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As reported by U.S. News<\/em>, the total research expenditures<\/a> of the College of Education\u2019s faculty and researchers averaged $35.08 million over fiscal years 2024 and 2025\u2014the 23rd most in the nation among both public and private universities. That dollar amount\u2014which is a way to measure research productivity\u2014is about $12 million more than the next college of education in North Carolina ($23.19 million).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NC State\u2019s College of Education also awarded 111 doctoral degrees in education in 2024 and 2025\u2014the most of any in North Carolina and more than double the next college (46). Additionally, the college continued to score among the highest in peer and educational professional assessments at both the state and national level.  <\/p>\n"},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NC State\u2019s College of Education is ranked No. 1 in North Carolina and tied for No. 26 in the nation in the U.S. News & World Report\u2019s 2026 Best Graduate Schools: Education rankings released April 7, 2026. That national ranking is an improvement of one spot over last year, making it the second straight year that the College of Education has set a new high in the Best Education Schools rankings. Among public colleges, NC State\u2019s College of Education tied at No. 7 in the nation\u2014its highest-ever.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":101264,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"source":"","ncst_custom_author":"","ncst_show_custom_author":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"ncst\/default-post-header","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"{\"showAuthor\":true,\"showDate\":true,\"showFeaturedVideo\":false,\"displayCategoryID\":202}","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","ncst_content_audit_display":false,"ncst_backToTopFlag":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[417,202,185],"tags":[2444,186,562,217,327,189,187,904],"_ncst_magazine_issue":[],"class_list":["post-101263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics-and-programs","category-honors-and-awards","category-news","tag-2026-rankings","tag-elphd","tag-honors-and-awards","tag-news","tag-rankings","tag-stem-ed","tag-tels","tag-u-s-news-rankings"],"displayCategory":{"term_id":202,"name":"Honors and Awards","slug":"honors-and-awards","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":202,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":575,"filter":"raw"},"acf":{"ncst_posts_meta_modified_date":null},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ced.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ced.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ced.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ced.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ced.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101263"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ced.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101265,"href":"https:\/\/ced.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101263\/revisions\/101265"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ced.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ced.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ced.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ced.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101263"},{"taxonomy":"_ncst_magazine_issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ced.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_ncst_magazine_issue?post=101263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}