While budget reductions have many concerned about the University of Wyoming’s decline, the school’s elementary education program was recently ranked number six in the nation by College Choice.
The independent online publication placed UW on its list of the "35 Best Elementary Education Degrees for 2017." Scott Chamberlin, head of the UW Department of Elementary and Early Childhood Education, said the study in part looked at the reputation of the school and affordability.
“You know it kind of gets to this notion that a student that’s an aspiring teacher in elementary education does not need to go to an institution that costs $60,000 a year to get a really high quality education,” Chamberlin said. “I would hypothesize that really the qualitative difference in an institution that costs five to six times what the University of Wyoming costs is pretty much non-existent.”
In their review, College Choice highlighted the unique access students have to experienced teachersduring their field experience.
Chamberlin noted, “We’re sort of being rewarded for having our degree be an affordable one, but at the same time it’s not just affordability. It’s a nice reflection on the faculty as a whole.”
The schools ranked ahead of UW are Purdue, Texas A&M, Marshall, Louisiana Tech and the University of Texas-Arlington.
