UW College of Education listed #1 in recent ranking

The University of Wyoming College of Education was ranked first in the nation by Study.com on its list of the “50 Best Colleges for Education Majors.”

Study.com is an internet learning platform offering online classes and resources to teachers, homeschooled students and college credit classes.

The University of Wisconsin in Stevens Point earned second place on the list, with Sonoma State University located in Rohnert Park, California, securing third place. 

UW was selected based on academic and career resources provided for education students, and for the high quality of education students receive, according to a UW press release.

The first place ranking comes just a day before U.S. Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., released a statement after the Department of Education announced it had approved Wyoming’s Perkins career and technical education state plan. 

On May 29, the Department of Education approved nine career and technical education state plans, including Wyoming’s.

“I’m glad the Education Department approved Wyoming’s career and technical education plans,” Enzi said in a separate release. “I was proud to lead the reauthorization of the Perkins Career and Technical Education Act in 2018 that helped make this possible. These plans will help give our state flexibility to offer students different training and education opportunities needed to succeed in the modern workforce.” 

On the website, Study.com noted that UW College of Education offered a chance to experience hands-on learning through internship opportunities, clinical experiences and student-teaching while studying abroad. 

With cost a constant factor in education, Study.com also noted the UW College of Education offers almost 20 scholarship opportunities for graduate students and a variety of undergraduate scholarships.

According to a UW press release, the ranking provides evidence of the College of Education’s efforts to transform its programs to ensure Wyoming and the nation have vibrant, innovative teachers to serve the students who will lead the country into the future. 

“The College of Education faculty, staff and administrators have been working to ensure that our programs support the growth of our students as future classroom teachers by providing them with recent innovations in instructional practices,” Leslie Rush, the college’s incoming interim dean said. “This has included developing new experiential learning opportunities, such as using virtual reality to provide experience leading a classroom. We also have expanded our student-teaching program to include placements in 30 of the 48 Wyoming school districts and opportunities to complete a portion of the student-teaching requirement abroad.” 

A variety of information was used to determine the Study.com rankings, including the assortment of programs offered; specialization options; hands-on teaching experiences; extracurricular opportunities; and general school statistics provided by the U.S. Department of Education.

To see the rankings, go to https://study.com/resources/education-schools.