How We Rank Online Master's in Education Programs

What Does This Ranking of Online Master's Programs in Education Measure?

The ranking measures two things that federal records hold for every master's program: how many master's degrees the program awarded in the latest reported year, and what the university charges for a year of graduate study. Both come from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, the survey that every college taking part in federal student aid programs reports to the U.S. Department of Education. The ranking does not measure how well a program teaches, how its graduates fare or how a school is regarded. The federal College Scorecard publishes graduate earnings and debt by credential level and four-digit field at each school, not for a single online program, so those figures are not used, and we will not invent a figure for the rest.

Each list ranks fully online master's programs only, in the education fields reported under family 13, Education, of the federal Classification of Instructional Programs. There is one national list and 15 specialty lists. Every program is scored once, against one national pool, and carries the same score on every list it appears on.

Which Online Master's Programs in Education Are Ranked?

An online master's program in education is ranked when it passes five tests. It must be fully online, as the next section defines. It must not be closed to applicants: 13 programs the college has closed are removed from the data before anything is scored. It must have awarded at least 5 master's degrees in the latest reported year, so a program with a handful of graduates does not outscore an established one on cost alone. It must have a graduate tuition and fees figure on federal record. And it must have a researched description of the program that rests on the school's own page, with the research rated above low confidence.

That leaves 1,771 ranked programs from 667 schools. 398 of them are in fields outside the 15 specialty groups and compete only on the national list.

What Counts as a Fully Online Master's Program?

A master's program counts as fully online when the school's own description of it says the whole degree can be completed at a distance. This is the idea behind the federal definition of an exclusively distance education program, applied to the school's own wording rather than to the federal flag. The federal flag is not used to decide eligibility, because many schools report it as off for programs that their own pages describe as fully online.

The test reads each program's researched description. The program is fully online when the description mentions online, distance or remote delivery and mentions nothing that brings the student to a campus: no hybrid or blended format, no low-residency model, no in-person classes, no required seminar. A program that offers both an online and an on-campus option is counted as hybrid, not fully online, because a student who must choose is not in a program built to be finished from home.

A second pass reads the full description for a required campus residency, on-campus intensive or in-person class session, the kind of visit a one-line format label can leave out. Where the description says one is required, the program moves to hybrid. A student teaching or practicum placement does not move it, because the student completes that near home. Programs whose delivery the description does not state clearly are not ranked. Hybrid programs, on-campus programs and unclear ones are all counted on the pages and never ranked: 1,603 are hybrid or offer a campus option, 1,643 are on campus and 359 are not clearly described.

How Is the Score for an Online Master's Program Calculated?

The score for an online master's program is out of 100 and has two parts of equal weight. Each part is a percentile against every ranked program in the country, so a program is scored on where it stands among its peers, not against a fixed target.

• Degrees awarded, 50%. Master's degrees the program conferred in the latest reported year, counted up to 50. Past 50 a year a program is clearly established and more volume adds nothing.
• Out-of-state tuition and fees, 50%. The university's graduate tuition plus required fees for a full-time year, out-of-state rate, 2023-24. Lower cost scores higher.

The percentile is the share of ranked programs the program beats on that figure, counting half of any ties, and it is reversed for cost so that a cheaper program scores higher. The two percentiles are weighted and added. Programs are sorted by score, then by degrees awarded, then by school name, so the order does not depend on how the data happens to be arranged.

Degrees awarded is capped at 50 for scoring. At about 50 master's degrees a year a program is clearly established, and past that point more volume says little about whether a program suits a student. Without the cap, the largest programs would win on size alone.

Why Does Each School Appear Only Once on a List?

Each school appears only once on a list, with its best-scoring program that belongs on that list. Without the rule a single university with many education master's degrees could fill a list, and a reader comparing options would see one option repeated. The 1,771 ranked programs come from 667 schools, so the rule removes duplicates without shrinking the field much. Lists show up to 25 programs, and fewer where fewer schools have a qualifying program in the specialty.

What Does the Cost Figure in the Ranking Include, and What Does It Leave Out?

The cost figure is the university's graduate tuition plus required fees for a full-time academic year, at the out-of-state rate, from IPEDS Institutional Characteristics for 2023-24, which lists full-time graduate tuition and required fees for in-state and out-of-state students in its data dictionary. The out-of-state rate is used because an online program is open to students from other states and one rate has to be applied to every program. Each card also prints the in-state figure. Across the ranked programs the median is $16,293 out of state and $11,111 in state.

The figure has real limits, and the ranking inherits them. It is one annual charge for the whole university's graduate students, not a price for this program. It is not a per-credit rate, so a program that takes more credits costs more than its card suggests. It is not an online rate: some schools charge online students a different price from the one they report. Some schools report a very low annual figure as filed. Treat the number as a way to compare schools on one footing, and ask the program for its own tuition page before you plan a budget.

How Are the Online Master's in Education Lists for Each State Built?

The online master's in education lists for each state hold only programs at universities located in that state. They use the same two factors and weights, with cost set to the school's in-state graduate rate, the price a resident pays, scored as a percentile against every ranked program in the country. Each school appears once, with its best-scoring program, up to ten per state. A state with no ranked university of its own has no list.

Each state page also ranks up to 5 of its programs that lead to a license, one per school, on the same score. A program that leads to a license is approved in its school's own state, which is the state whose list shows it. For a school elsewhere, the professional licensure disclosure that 34 CFR 668.43 requires says whether its program meets another state's requirements, and the licensure guides cover what each state asks for.

What Does the Ranking Leave Out?

The ranking leaves out graduation rate and admission rate because the federal rates describe first-time, full-time undergraduates and undergraduate applicants, not master's students. No reputation survey is used. No salary figure is used, because the earnings the College Scorecard reports cover a field at a school, not a single online program. No school pays for a score or a position, and no list is sold. If sponsored listings are ever added, they will be labeled as sponsored and kept apart from the ranked cards.

When Were the Data Collected, and When Is the Method Updated?

The data were collected from federal sources on October 6, 2026, and the method was last updated as noted below. Tuition and fees are for 2023-24. This is version 1.0 of the method, last changed October 6, 2026. The version and date change whenever a weight, a threshold or the scope of a list changes, and the page date moves whenever a figure on it does.

Spot an error in a program's figures or description? The school's own record is linked from every card through College Navigator, and corrections can be sent from the about page.