Online M.Ed. program receives high rankings

Northwestern College’s Master of Education program is ranked 89th out of more than 325 schools in U.S. News & World Report’s 2023 Best Online Master’s in Education Programs ranking, released on Jan. 24. Only one other member of the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities is ranked higher.

Northwestern also tied for 104th in the online bachelor’s degree program category in U.S. News & World Report’s 2023 rankings—highest among institutions in Iowa. Northwestern offers bachelor’s degree-completion online programs in early childhood and RN-to-BSN.

“We are pleased and gratified to receive these high national rankings. They reflect the quality of our programs,” says Gary Richardson, dean of Northwestern’s Graduate School & Adult Learning division. “Our outstanding online programs represent an asynchronous academic environment that provides for a flexible delivery of instruction to working parents and individuals.”

Northwestern offers the M.Ed. degree in eight tracks: early childhood, early childhood + endorsement, educational administration + K-12 principal endorsement, master teacher, special education, special education + endorsement, teacher leadership, and teaching history. Graduate-level endorsements and certificates are also available.

The U.S. News rankings are based upon student excellence and engagement, faculty credentials and training, services and technologies, and expert opinions.

Another national ranking organization, OnlineMastersDegrees.org (OMD), has ranked Northwestern’s M.Ed. in early childhood 10th in the nation and highest among Iowa institutions. OMD also ranked NWC’s M.Ed. in educational administration 22nd in the country. No other Iowa institution received a ranking in that category. And finally, Northwestern’s special education M.Ed. was ranked 24th by OMD this year.

Northwestern’s programs earned top honors from OMD for overall quality, affordability and commitment to student success. OnlineMastersDegrees.org analyzed more than 7,700 accredited universities by using data pulled from the schools themselves and from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). After the data was compiled, OMD’s data science team then applied a proprietary algorithm to rank all qualifying schools for each of the different master’s degrees specialties.