ASU's Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College ranked among nation's best

ASU's Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College ranked among nation's best
March 17, 2020
Meghan Krein

ASU’s Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College placed No. 13 among 393 institutions surveyed in U.S. News and World Report’s annual rankings of America’s graduate schools of education. 

Among public universities, the college was ranked No. 5, ahead of the University of California-Berkeley, the University of Texas-Austin and the University of Virginia. This year’s U.S. News and World Report survey reinforces ASU’s ascent to the top tier of colleges of education since 2012, when it ranked No. 35 in the survey. 

Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College continues to be one of the few colleges of education in the country that excels at both teacher preparation and world-class scholarly research. ASU reported $62.9 million in funded research related to education, which ranked second among all institutions surveyed, ahead of Harvard, Stanford and Columbia University’s Teachers College. ASU also reported the fourth highest graduate enrollment of the universities ranked in the survey.  

“We’re proud to be both big and good,” said Carole Basile, dean of Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College. “It reflects our university’s commitment to combining access and excellence.”

The survey also identified the following Mary Lou Fulton graduate programs as among the top in the country:

• Higher Education: No. 19.

• Special Education: No. 17.

• Secondary Education: No. 14.

• Curriculum and Instruction: No. 14.

• Elementary Education: No. 13.

“The U.S. News and World Report ranking is one of many indications that we are maintaining a level of excellence in doing the things that graduate colleges of education have traditionally done,” Basile said. “We’re preparing teachers and principals, generating research that informs pedagogy and policy. 

“Additionally, we’d like to expand the expectations of what a college of education should be and do,” Basile said. “A great college of education occupies a position in the supply chains of both labor and knowledge. We have a catalytic role to play in bringing people and ideas together so we can forge sustainable, systemic responses to our society's biggest education challenges.”

Basile points to the college's work on the Next Education Workforce as an example of the kind of work she thinks a great college of education can do. “We’re working with educators, school systems, researchers, policymakers, nonprofits, community organizations and others to think about how we can improve learning environments for both educators and learners. It’s a big lift. It’s not easy. But it should be why we exist.”

Read more about the college: The Next Normal

Top photo: Graduates cross the stage at the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College commencement. Photo credit: ASU