Ranked #13 in popularity, curriculum & instruction is one of the most sought-after master's degree programs in the nation. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.
College Factual looked at 11 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Curriculum & Instruction Master's Degree Schools in Illinois ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 798 master's degrees in curriculum & instruction to qualified students.
DEBUG: Checking offer "Grad Cert - Instructional Design (I Have a Bachelors)" with relevance 0.8
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Grad Cert - Instructional Design (I Have a Bachelors)" ACCEPTED (relevance 0.8)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Educational Psychology (I Have a Bachelors)" with relevance 0.7
DEBUG: ✗ Offer "Educational Psychology (I Have a Bachelors)" REJECTED (relevance 0.7)
DEBUG: relevant_offers count = 7
DEBUG: relevant_offers > 0, checking for ESYOH offers
DEBUG: ESYOH filtering - found 6 ESYOH offers with relevance >= 0.8
DEBUG: esyoh_offers count = 6
DEBUG: ESYOH offers found, rendering ESYOH widget
DEBUG: most_relevant_only = true, filtering for most relevant
DEBUG: Found 5 offers with relevance >= 1.0
Choosing a Great Curriculum & Instruction School for Your Master's Degree
Your choice of curriculum & instruction for getting your master's degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
Quality Overall Is Important
The overall quality of a master's degree school is important to ensure a good education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To account for this we include a school's overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking which itself looks at a collection of different factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
Average Earnings
To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their master's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their master's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.
Other Factors We Consider
The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.
Major Focus - How much a school focuses on curriculum & instruction students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - The number of curriculum & instruction students who choose to seek a master's degree at the school.
Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
Student Debt - How much debt curriculum & instruction students go into to obtain their master's degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized curriculum & instruction related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for curriculum & instruction students working on their master's degree.
More Ways to Rank Curriculum & Instruction Schools
The curriculum school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we've developed a number of major-specific rankings, including this list of the Best Curriculum & Instruction Master's Degree Schools in Illinois.
DEBUG: Raw major_slug = "education//curriculum-instruction"
It's hard to beat Concordia University, Chicago if you want to pursue a master's degree in curriculum & instruction. Located in the suburb of River Forest, Concordia University, Chicago is a private not-for-profit university with a medium-sized student population.
Master's recipients from the curriculum & instruction major at Concordia University, Chicago get $6,183 more than the standard college graduate in this field shortly after graduation.
National Louis University is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a master's degree in curriculum & instruction. NLU is a moderately-sized private not-for-profit university located in the city of Chicago.
Master's students who receive their degree from the curriculum program earn an average of $61,839 in the first couple years of working.
University of St Francis is a wonderful choice for students pursuing a master's degree in curriculum & instruction. University of Saint Francis is a small private not-for-profit university located in the suburb of Joliet.
Master's recipients from the curriculum & instruction program at University of St Francis earn $4,697 above the typical graduate in this field shortly after graduation.
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).
Your choice of curriculum & instruction for getting your master's degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
