2025 Best Education Schools in the Southwest Region
65Colleges in the Southwest Region
39,966Education Degrees Awarded
$53,180Avg Early-Career Salary
If you plan on majoring in education, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #4 in the country in terms of popularity. As a result, there are many college that offer the degree, making your choice of school a hard one.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 65 schools in the Southwest Region to determine which ones were the best for education students pursuing a degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 39,966 degrees in education annually.
The education program you select can have a big impact on your future. That's why we developed our collection of Best Schools for Education rankings. We derive our Best Overall Education School rankings by rolling up our degree-level rankings after weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each school.
In order to find the schools that are the best fit for you, you may want to filter to one of the degree levels below.
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Education Schools in the Southwest Region list, to help you choose the best school for you.
If you'd like to restrict your choices to just one part of the country, you can filter this list by location.
In addition to our rankings, you can take two colleges and compare them based on the criteria that matters most to you in our unique tool, College Combat.
Test it out when you get a chance! You may also want to bookmark the link and share it with others who are trying to make the college decision.
Best Schools for Education in the Southwest Region
If you aren't interested in a particular degree level and want to know which schools are the overall best at delivering an education for the education degrees they offer, see the list below. Only those schools that rank in the top 20% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
Northern Arizona University is a wonderful decision for students pursuing a degree in education. NAU is a very large public university located in the city of Flagstaff. A Best Colleges rank of #221 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means NAU is a great university overall.
There were roughly 1253 education students who graduated with this degree at NAU in the most recent year we have data available. Students who graduate with their degree from the education program report average early career earnings of $51,766.
Every student pursuing a degree in education needs to take a look at Arizona State University - Tempe. Located in the medium-sized city of Tempe, ASU - Tempe is a public university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #108 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means ASU - Tempe is a great university overall.
There were about 1128 education students who graduated with this degree at ASU - Tempe in the most recent year we have data available. Students who receive their degree from the education program make around $53,943 in their early career salary.
Grand Canyon University is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a degree in education. Grand Canyon University is a fairly large private for-profit university located in the large city of Phoenix. A Best Colleges rank of #144 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means Grand Canyon University is a great university overall.
There were about 8555 education students who graduated with this degree at Grand Canyon University in the most recent data year. Graduates who receive their degree from the education program make around $54,721 in the first couple years of working.
Baylor University is a great decision for students interested in a degree in education. Located in the midsize city of Waco, Baylor is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #150 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means Baylor is a great university overall.
There were approximately 284 education students who graduated with this degree at Baylor in the most recent year we have data available. Soon after graduation, education degree recipients usually earn about $52,003 in the first five years of their career.
Houston Community College is a very large public college located in the city of Houston. This college ranks 17th out of 115 colleges for overall quality in the state of Texas.
There were about 102 education students who graduated with this degree at Houston Community College in the most recent data year.
Located in the town of Stillwater, OSU is a public university with a fairly large student population. This university ranks 2nd out of 31 schools for overall quality in the state of Oklahoma.
There were approximately 406 education students who graduated with this degree at OSU in the most recent data year. Students who graduate with their degree from the education program state that they receive average early career wages of $47,100.
UT Arlington is a very large public university located in the large city of Arlington. A Best Colleges rank of #304 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means UT Arlington is a great university overall.
There were about 1124 education students who graduated with this degree at UT Arlington in the most recent year we have data available. Those education students who get their degree from The University of Texas at Arlington receive $9,291 more than the typical education grad.
University of Oklahoma is a fairly large public university located in the midsize suburb of Norman. A Best Colleges rank of #191 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means University of Oklahoma is a great university overall.
There were roughly 338 education students who graduated with this degree at University of Oklahoma in the most recent data year. After graduating, education degree recipients usually make around $47,924 in the first five years of their career.
University of Arizona is a fairly large public university located in the large city of Tucson. A Best Colleges rank of #110 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means University of Arizona is a great university overall.
There were roughly 547 education students who graduated with this degree at University of Arizona in the most recent year we have data available. After graduation, education degree recipients usually make about $43,647 in the first five years of their career.
Located in the medium-sized city of McAllen, South Texas College is a public college with a fairly large student population. This college ranks 19th out of 115 schools for overall quality in the state of Texas.
There were approximately 320 education students who graduated with this degree at South Texas College in the most recent data year. After graduating, education degree recipients generally make an average of $16,902 in their early careers.
Located in the city of Phoenix, UOPX - Arizona is a private for-profit university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #83 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means UOPX - Arizona is a great university overall.
There were approximately 1120 education students who graduated with this degree at UOPX - Arizona in the most recent year we have data available. Degree recipients from the education program at University of Phoenix - Arizona earn $2,734 above the standard college grad with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Located in the suburb of McKinney, Collin County Community College District is a public college with a very large student population. This college ranks 15th out of 115 schools for overall quality in the state of Texas.
There were about 144 education students who graduated with this degree at Collin County Community College District in the most recent data year.
TCU is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Fort Worth. A Best Colleges rank of #112 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means TCU is a great university overall.
There were about 200 education students who graduated with this degree at TCU in the most recent data year. Degree recipients from the education program at Texas Christian University make $5,745 more than the average college graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
These are some additional schools worth mentioning that are also great but just didn't quite make the cut to earn our top Best Education Schools in the Southwest Region award.
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).
Credit for the banner image above goes to Horadrim.
The education program you select can have a big impact on your future. That's why we developed our collection of Best Schools for Education rankings. We derive our Best Overall Education School rankings by rolling up our degree-level rankings after weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each school.
