Special Education is of the hottest master's degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #8 most popular major in the country. So, there are lots of possibilities to explore when you're trying to determine where you want to get your degree.
College Factual reviewed 10 schools in California to determine which ones were the best for master's degree seekers in the field of special education. Combined, these schools handed out 1,297 master's degrees in special education to qualified students.
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Choosing a Great Special Education School for Your Master's Degree
The special ed master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality special ed program can vary widely even among the top schools. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
The overall quality of a master's degree school is important to ensure a quality education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To take this into account we consider 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 Early-Career Salaries
Average early-career salary of those graduating with their master's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your master's degree won't mean much if it doesn't help you find a job that will help you earn a living.
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 special education students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - How many other special education students want to attend this school to pursue a master's degree.
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 easy is it for special education to pay back their student loans after receiving their master's degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized special education related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for special education students working on their master's degree.
The special ed 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 Special Education Master's Degree Schools in California.
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It is hard to beat California State University - Los Angeles if you wish to pursue a master's degree in special education. Located in the city of Los Angeles, Cal State LA is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Those special education students who get their master's degree from California State University - Los Angeles make $13,901 more than the average special ed grad.
It is difficult to beat National University if you wish to pursue a master's degree in special education. National University is a large private not-for-profit university located in the city of San Diego.
Students who graduate with their master's from the special ed program state that they receive average early career income of $70,672.
It is hard to beat Point Loma Nazarene University if you wish to pursue a master's degree in special education. Located in the large city of San Diego, PLNU is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population.
Special Education master's degree recipients from Point Loma Nazarene University receive an earnings boost of about $3,345 over the typical income of special education graduates.
Cal State Fullerton is a fairly large public university located in the large suburb of Fullerton.
Special Education master's degree recipients from California State University - Fullerton earn a boost of about $9,302 over the typical income of special education majors.
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).
The special ed master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality special ed program can vary widely even among the top schools. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
