Teaching College Rankings: How Teacher.org Scores Programs
Teacher.org's teaching college rankings score education programs on four areas: program graduate share, graduation rate, loan default rate, and tuition affordability. The rankings draw on the 2014 federal IPEDS survey cycle. Only four-year colleges awarding at least 100 graduates a year across all programs are scored.
Most college ranking lists don't show their work. You get a number next to a school name and no way to check whether the number means anything. This page sets out what goes into Teacher.org's teaching college rankings, where the underlying data comes from, and which colleges never make it into the pool in the first place. One part of the formula isn't published: the relative weighting of the four scoring areas. So this isn't a recipe you could re-run yourself end to end.
One thing to know before you read further: the rankings currently published are built on the 2014 IPEDS survey cycle. Knowing what a score captures, what it misses, and how old the underlying data is, is the difference between using a ranking well and taking it on faith.
Where the Ranking Data Comes From
The rankings start with the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, or IPEDS. It's the standardized federal dataset that every college receiving federal student aid is required to report into. The information in it is reported by the institutions themselves, but because every college reports the same fields in the same format, it supports comparisons that scattered individual sources can't.
IPEDS figures are then matched against accreditation data from the U.S. Department of Education's Database of Accredited Postsecondary Institutions and Programs. That second step confirms a college's accreditation status independently rather than taking an institution's own word for it.
The rankings currently published draw on the 2014 IPEDS survey cycle. The specific survey files behind them are:
- Institutional Characteristics Survey (HD, IC, and IC_AY files)
- Completions Survey (C_A and C_DEP files)
- Graduation Rates Survey (GR file)
The survey year matters. Graduation rates and tuition shift over time, so a ranking built on one cycle answers a question about that cycle, not about this admissions season.
Which Colleges Are Included
Before any scoring happens, three groups of colleges are removed from the pool:
- Colleges reported as nonoperational in the data files
- Institutions below four-year status (IPEDS Sector Codes 4 through 9)
- Colleges awarding fewer than 100 total graduates per year, counted across all programs rather than education alone
That last cut is institutional, not program-level, and it does the most work. A college awarding fewer than 100 graduates across everything it offers drops out of the pool entirely, however strong its education program happens to be. The floor keeps percentage-based measures from being distorted by tiny denominators, but it also means small colleges, including some good ones, never appear.
How Colleges Are Scored
Four areas feed the final score. Each measure comes from federally collected data rather than reputation surveys or proprietary ranking surveys. Three of the four are drawn from the IPEDS files listed above. The loan default rate is not, and the published methodology doesn't identify which federal source supplies it.
| Scoring Area | What It Measures |
|---|---|
| Program Graduate Share | What percentage of a college's total annual graduates come out of the education program being ranked |
| Graduation Rate | The IPEDS graduation-rate measure, which follows a defined entering cohort over a set timeframe rather than counting every student at the institution |
| Loan Default Rate | How often the college's borrowers default on federal student loans. The source file is not identified in the published methodology |
| Tuition Affordability | Reported tuition relative to other colleges in the pool. The published methodology doesn't specify which tuition figure is used |
Scoring is relative, not absolute. For each area, the best-performing college in the pool is set to 100, and every other college is scored as a percentage of that leader. A college scoring 60 on graduation rate isn't graduating 60% of its students. It's performing at 60% of the level the top college in that pool reached.
From there, the process runs the same way for every degree ranking, scored separately:
- In each of the four areas, the leading college scores 100. That means the highest program graduate share, the best graduation rate, the lowest loan default rate, and the lowest tuition.
- Every other college is scored as a percentage of that leader, area by area.
- The four area scores are grouped and weighted into a single overall score.
- Overall scores are sorted from highest to lowest.
- If two colleges tie on the overall score, the one with more online education options ranks ahead.
The four areas don't carry equal weight in the final score. The specific weighting applied at step five isn't published on this page, so treat the overall ranking as a composite rather than a figure you can reproduce yourself from the four area scores.
Ranking Details By Program Type
Each degree area is ranked on its own, against its own pool of colleges. The counts below are from the 2014 ranking dataset. They record how large each pool was when the rankings were built, not how many colleges offer these programs today.
| Program Type | Colleges Analyzed (2014) | Colleges Ranked (2014) |
|---|---|---|
| Early Childhood Education | 425 | 20 |
| Educational Leadership | 563 | 20 |
| Elementary Education | 781 | 20 |
| Master's in Education | 352 | 20 |
| Special Education | 400 | 20 |
Because each pool is different, a rank of 5 in one program type and a rank of 5 in another aren't the same achievement. For example, Elementary Education's pool was nearly twice the size of Special Education's.
What These Rankings Don't Measure
There's far more to picking a teacher preparation program than four federal data points, and it would be dishonest to pretend otherwise. What these rankings do well is surface colleges with strong completion numbers, manageable debt outcomes, and a real institutional commitment to education as a field. What they can't see matters just as much.
Nothing in this scoring model captures the quality of faculty, the strength of a program's student teaching placements, how well graduates perform on state licensure exams, or whether a program holds specialized accreditation from a body like CAEP. It also can't tell you whether a program leads to initial licensure in your state, which is often the single most important question a prospective teacher has.
The vintage question is real too. These rankings reflect the 2014 survey cycle and nothing after it. Tuition has moved since, default rates have moved, and some programs have been restructured or closed outright. Use the rankings as a starting shortlist, then verify current details with the college and with your state's educator-licensing agency.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why are some colleges missing from the rankings?
Three filters remove colleges before scoring begins: nonoperational status, institutions below four-year status, and any college awarding fewer than 100 total graduates a year across all programs. That threshold is institutional, so a strong education program at a small college can be excluded on the size of the college alone. Absence from the list isn't a judgment on quality.
Does a higher rank mean a better teacher preparation program?
It means the college scored better on four specific federal measures than others in the same pool. That's useful information, but it isn't a verdict on teaching quality, placement support, or licensure outcomes, none of which are part of the model.
How are ties broken?
When two colleges finish with the same overall score, the one offering more online education options is placed higher. Online availability isn't part of the scoring itself, only the tiebreaker.
What does the tuition affordability score actually measure?
It compares reported tuition across the pool, with the lowest-tuition college set at 100. The published methodology doesn't specify which tuition figure feeds the score, and the score doesn't account for financial aid packages or the total cost of attendance once housing and fees are added.
Are the rankings based on accreditation?
Accreditation data from the Office of Postsecondary Education is used to verify institutional records, not to score colleges. Programmatic accreditation from an educator-preparation accreditor is a separate matter and isn't part of the ranking model, so check it directly with any program you're considering.
- Four federal measures drive the score - program graduate share, graduation rate, loan default rate, and tuition affordability. The first three come from IPEDS files, and the default-rate source isn't named in the published methodology.
- Scoring is relative, not absolute - the top college in each area is set to 100 and everyone else is scored as a percentage of that leader, so scores compare colleges rather than describe them.
- Size filters exclude small colleges - institutions awarding fewer than 100 graduates a year across all programs never enter the pool, regardless of how good their education program is.
- Each program type is ranked separately - in the 2014 dataset, pools ranged from 352 colleges for Master's in Education to 781 for Elementary Education, so identical ranks across program types aren't equivalent.
- Licensure and accreditation sit outside the model - verify state licensure eligibility and programmatic accreditation directly with the college and your state's educator-licensing agency.
A ranking narrows the field, but it can't tell you whether a program fits your schedule, your budget, or your state's licensure requirements. The sponsored programs on this page list their formats and degree levels up front, and several are built for people already holding a degree in another subject.