If you pursue a master's degree in special education, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #8 most popular program in the country. This means there are lots of options to choose from when you decide to get your degree.
College Factual looked at 21 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Special Education Master's Degree Schools in the New England Region ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 1,250 master's degrees in special education to qualified students.
DEBUG: Checking offer "Special Education (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" with relevance 1
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Special Education (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" ACCEPTED (relevance 1)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Special Education (I Have a Masters)" with relevance 1
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Special Education (I Have a Masters)" ACCEPTED (relevance 1)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Special Education (I Have a Masters)" with relevance 1
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Special Education (I Have a Masters)" ACCEPTED (relevance 1)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Grad Cert - Special Education (I Have a Bachelors)" with relevance 1
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Grad Cert - Special Education (I Have a Bachelors)" ACCEPTED (relevance 1)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Special Education (I Have a Bachelors)" with relevance 1
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Special Education (I Have a Bachelors)" ACCEPTED (relevance 1)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Special Education (I Have a Masters)" with relevance 1
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Special Education (I Have a Masters)" ACCEPTED (relevance 1)
DEBUG: relevant_offers count = 6
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 6 offers with relevance >= 1.0
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. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
A Great Overall School
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 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.
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
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 complete 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.
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Special Education Master's Degree Schools in the New England Region list, to help you choose the best school for you.
DEBUG: Raw major_slug = "education//special-education"
Boston University is a good choice for individuals pursuing a master's degree in special education. Located in the city of Boston, Boston U is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.
After graduating, special ed master's recipients typically earn around $59,238 in their early careers.
It is hard to beat Boston College if you want to pursue a master's degree in special education. Located in the city of Chestnut Hill, Boston College is a private not-for-profit college with a fairly large student population.
Those special education students who get their master's degree from Boston College receive $2,135 more than the average special ed graduate.
Rhode Island College is a great decision for students interested in a master's degree in special education. RIC is a medium-sized public college located in the suburb of Providence.
Special Education master's degree recipients from Rhode Island College earn a boost of approximately $8,464 over the average income of special education graduates.
Located in the midsize suburb of Fitchburg, Fitchburg State is a public university with a moderately-sized student population.
Master's recipients from the special education degree program at Fitchburg State University get $2,292 more than the average college grad in this field when they enter the workforce.
Located in the city of Boston, UMass Boston is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Special Education master's degree recipients from University of Massachusetts - Boston receive an earnings boost of around $7,983 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).