Speaking of the U.S. News & World Report rankings (I had a post yesterday about a possible shift in their methodology for determining said rankings): Loyola Marymount University informed me today that, for the first time, its School of Education landed on the magazine's list of, you guessed it, "Top Schools of Education."

From the press release:
The list ranks more than the 250 top Schools of Education, out of more than 800 schools around the nation. LMU placed 117th on the list. It was the fourth highest ranked Jesuit institution in the country and the 13th top ranked school in California.

“This is the first year our School of Education was eligible for consideration for the U.S. News & World Report rankings,” said Shane P. Martin, dean for the School of Education. “I’m so proud of the work our faculty, staff and students do that made this ranking possible. I know we’ll continue to work hard and move forward in the years to come.”

Graduate programs at 278 schools granting doctoral degrees in education were surveyed in fall 2007 and early 2008. Of those schools, 245 responded; 242 provided the data needed to calculate rankings based on a weighted average of the 10 quality measures. Some of the measures included a quality assessment survey given to deans; average GRE scores and acceptance rates; faculty resources and research activities among faculty.

Top ranked schools included Stanford, UCLA, Vanderbuilt and Columbia. Other Jesuit institutions included Boston College, Fordham University and Marquette University.

Visit the U.S. News website for complete rankings. To learn more about LMU's School of Education, go here.