Ranked #97 in popularity, teacher education is one of the most sought-after degree programs in the nation. This means there are lots of options to choose from when you decide to get your degree.
In 2024, College Factual analyzed 156 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Teacher Education Schools ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 9,949 degrees in teacher education during the 2020-2021 academic year.
The teacher education program you select can have a big impact on your future. That's why we developed our collection of Best Schools for Teacher Education rankings. For our Best Overall Teacher Education School rankings, we roll up the results of our degree-level rankings, weighted by the number of degrees awarded at that level.
You may want to choose one of the degree levels below to find the schools of most interest to you.
When choosing the right school for you, it's important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we've created a number of major-specific rankings, including this Best Teacher Education Schools list to help you make the college decision.
If you'd like to restrict your choices to just one part of the country, you can filter this list by location.
In addition to our rankings, you can take two colleges and compare them based on the criteria that matters most to you in our unique tool, College Combat.
Test it out when you get a chance! You may also want to bookmark the link and share it with others who are trying to make the college decision.
Best Schools for Teacher Education in the United States
The schools below may not offer all types of teacher education degrees so you may want to filter by degree level first. However, they are great for the degree levels they do offer. Only those schools that rank in the top 15% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
Vanderbilt University is a wonderful choice for students interested in a degree in teacher education. Vanderbilt is a large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Nashville. A Best Colleges rank of #19 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means Vanderbilt is a great university overall.
There were approximately 16 teacher education students who graduated with this degree at Vanderbilt in the most recent year we have data available.
Every student pursuing a degree in teacher education needs to check out University of Central Florida. UCF is a fairly large public university located in the large suburb of Orlando. A Best Colleges rank of #193 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means UCF is a great university overall.
There were roughly 25 teacher education students who graduated with this degree at UCF in the most recent data year.
It's difficult to beat Seattle University if you want to pursue a degree in teacher education. Seattle U is a moderately-sized private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Seattle. A Best Colleges rank of #155 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means Seattle U is a great university overall.
There were roughly 48 teacher education students who graduated with this degree at Seattle U in the most recent year we have data available.
It's difficult to beat Relay Graduate School of Education if you want to pursue a degree in teacher education. Located in the large city of New York, Relay Graduate School of Education is a private not-for-profit school with a small student population.
There were roughly 1753 teacher education students who graduated with this degree at Relay Graduate School of Education in the most recent year we have data available.
UC Irvine is a fairly large public university located in the city of Irvine. A Best Colleges rank of #61 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means UC Irvine is a great university overall.
There were roughly 261 teacher education students who graduated with this degree at UC Irvine in the most recent year we have data available.
USF Tampa is a fairly large public university located in the large city of Tampa. A Best Colleges rank of #229 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means USF Tampa is a great university overall.
There were approximately 54 teacher education students who graduated with this degree at USF Tampa in the most recent data year.
Located in the small city of Redlands, University of Redlands is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population. This university ranks 45th out of 168 colleges for overall quality in the state of California.
There were roughly 229 teacher education students who graduated with this degree at University of Redlands in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the distant town of Statesboro, GaSou is a public university with a fairly large student population. This university ranks 13th out of 68 colleges for overall quality in the state of Georgia.
There were about 109 teacher education students who graduated with this degree at GaSou in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the large city of Chicago, DePaul is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #203 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means DePaul is a great university overall.
There were about 5 teacher education students who graduated with this degree at DePaul in the most recent year we have data available.
UNL is a very large public university located in the city of Lincoln. A Best Colleges rank of #138 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means UNL is a great university overall.
There were approximately 10 teacher education students who graduated with this degree at UNL in the most recent data year.
Located in the small city of Fayetteville, UARK is a public university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #198 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means UARK is a great university overall.
There were about 67 teacher education students who graduated with this degree at UARK in the most recent year we have data available.
Auburn is a very large public university located in the city of Auburn. A Best Colleges rank of #154 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means Auburn is a great university overall.
There were about 76 teacher education students who graduated with this degree at Auburn in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the suburb of Birmingham, Samford is a private not-for-profit university with a medium-sized student population. A Best Colleges rank of #243 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means Samford is a great university overall.
There were approximately 23 teacher education students who graduated with this degree at Samford in the most recent data year.
Located in the town of Seward, Concordia University, Nebraska is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population. This university ranks 4th out of 19 schools for overall quality in the state of Nebraska.
There were approximately 12 teacher education students who graduated with this degree at Concordia University, Nebraska in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the midsize city of Sioux Falls, Augustana Sioux Falls is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population. This university ranks 4th out of 13 schools for overall quality in the state of South Dakota.
There were about 12 teacher education students who graduated with this degree at Augustana Sioux Falls in the most recent data year.
Located in the large city of Saint Paul, UST MN is a private not-for-profit university with a medium-sized student population. A Best Colleges rank of #143 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means UST MN is a great university overall.
There were about 9 teacher education students who graduated with this degree at UST MN in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the remote town of Sioux Center, Dordt is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population. This university ranks 8th out of 40 schools for overall quality in the state of Iowa.
There were roughly 4 teacher education students who graduated with this degree at Dordt in the most recent data year.
UNLV is a very large public university located in the midsize city of Las Vegas. A Best Colleges rank of #149 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means UNLV is a great university overall.
There were about 1 teacher education students who graduated with this degree at UNLV in the most recent data year.
Located in the city of Durham, Duke is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #7 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means Duke is a great university overall.
There were approximately 14 teacher education students who graduated with this degree at Duke in the most recent data year.
Located in the rural area of Toppenish, Heritage University is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly small student population. This university ranks 16th out of 51 colleges for overall quality in the state of Washington.
There were about 4 teacher education students who graduated with this degree at Heritage University in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the large city of Saint Paul, Hamline is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population. This university ranks 14th out of 52 schools for overall quality in the state of Minnesota.
There were approximately 88 teacher education students who graduated with this degree at Hamline in the most recent data year.
Located in the large suburb of Kennesaw, KSU Georgia is a public university with a fairly large student population. This university ranks 15th out of 68 schools for overall quality in the state of Georgia.
There were roughly 52 teacher education students who graduated with this degree at KSU Georgia in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the city of San Marcos, Texas State is a public university with a very large student population. This university ranks 20th out of 115 schools for overall quality in the state of Texas.
There were roughly 183 teacher education students who graduated with this degree at Texas State in the most recent data year.
Located in the midsize city of Charleston, C of C is a public college with a large student population. This college ranks 8th out of 44 schools for overall quality in the state of South Carolina.
There were roughly 6 teacher education students who graduated with this degree at C of C in the most recent data year.
The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
Credit for the banner image above goes to Vgrigas.
college factual
The teacher education program you select can have a big impact on your future. That's why we developed our collection of Best Schools for Teacher Education rankings. For our Best Overall Teacher Education School rankings, we roll up the results of our degree-level rankings, weighted by the number of degrees awarded at that level.
