Education is of the hottest master's degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #2 most popular major in the country. This means there are lots of options to choose from when you decide to get your degree.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 6 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Education Master's Degree Schools in South Dakota ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 456 master's degrees in education during the 2022-2023 academic year.
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Choosing a Great Education School for Your Master's Degree
The education master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
A Great Overall School
A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
Early-Career Earnings
One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of master's graduates during the early years of their career. That is, everyone wants their master's degree to be worth something, and salaries are one measure of determining that.
Other Factors We Consider
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to education students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - How many other education students want to attend this school to pursue a master's degree.
Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
Student Debt - How much debt education 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 education related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for education students working on their master's degree.
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Education Master's Degree Schools in South Dakota ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
It's difficult to beat Augustana University if you want to pursue a master's degree in education. Located in the midsize city of Sioux Falls, Augustana Sioux Falls is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population.More information about a master’s in education from Augustana University
University of Sioux Falls is a good decision for students pursuing a master's degree in education. Located in the city of Sioux Falls, University of Sioux Falls is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population.More information about a master’s in education from University of Sioux Falls
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).
by our College Data Analytics Team
The education master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
