2025 Best Early Childhood Education Schools in the Great Lakes Region
74Colleges in the Great Lakes Region
4,350Child development Degrees Awarded
Ranked #34 in popularity, early childhood education is one of the most sought-after degree programs in the nation. So, there are lots of possibilities to explore when you're trying to determine where you want to get your degree.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 74 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Early Childhood Education Schools in the Great Lakes Region ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 4,350 degrees in early childhood education annually.
Your choice of early childhood education school matters, so we have put together these rankings to help you make your decision. In order to come up with a best overall ranking for early childhood education schools, we combine our degree-level rankings, weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each level.
You may want to choose one of the degree levels below to find the schools of most interest to you.
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Early Childhood Education Schools in the Great Lakes Region ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
More interested in schools in a specific area of the country? Filter this list by region or state.
To further help you make the college decision, we've developed a unique tool called College Combat that allows you to compare schools based on the factors that matter the most to you.
Go ahead and give it a try, or bookmark the link so you can check it out later.
Best Schools for Early Childhood Education in the Great Lakes Region
Although we recommend filtering by degree level first, you can view the list below to see which schools give the educational experience for the child development degree levels they offer. Only those schools that rank in the top 20% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
14 Top Great Lakes Region Schools in Child development
Any student who is interested in early childhood education needs to take a look at Indiana University - Bloomington. IU Bloomington is a fairly large public university located in the small city of Bloomington. A Best Colleges rank of #30 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means IU Bloomington is a great university overall.
There were roughly 7 early childhood education students who graduated with this degree at IU Bloomington in the most recent data year.
Ball State University is a good decision for students interested in a degree in early childhood education. Ball State is a very large public university located in the city of Muncie. A Best Colleges rank of #181 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means Ball State is a great university overall.
There were about 40 early childhood education students who graduated with this degree at Ball State in the most recent year we have data available.
Any student who is interested in early childhood education needs to look into Illinois State University. Located in the suburb of Normal, Illinois State is a public university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #210 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means Illinois State is a great university overall.
There were roughly 84 early childhood education students who graduated with this degree at Illinois State in the most recent year we have data available.
It's hard to beat University of Dayton if you want to pursue a degree in early childhood education. UDayton is a large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Dayton. This university ranks 8th out of 91 schools for overall quality in the state of Ohio.
There were about 66 early childhood education students who graduated with this degree at UDayton in the most recent data year.
Miami University - Oxford is a large public university located in the fringe town of Oxford. A Best Colleges rank of #134 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means Miami University - Oxford is a great university overall.
There were roughly 95 early childhood education students who graduated with this degree at Miami University - Oxford in the most recent data year.
Located in the small city of Champaign, UIUC is a public university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #41 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means UIUC is a great university overall.
There were about 11 early childhood education students who graduated with this degree at UIUC in the most recent data year.
Purdue is a fairly large public university located in the small city of West Lafayette. A Best Colleges rank of #65 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means Purdue is a great university overall.
There were about 18 early childhood education students who graduated with this degree at Purdue in the most recent data year.
Located in the city of Chicago, Loyola Chicago is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #100 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means Loyola Chicago is a great university overall.
There were roughly 4 early childhood education students who graduated with this degree at Loyola Chicago in the most recent year we have data available.
Concordia University, Chicago is a medium-sized private not-for-profit university located in the large suburb of River Forest. A Best Colleges rank of #125 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means Concordia University, Chicago is a great university overall.
There were roughly 27 early childhood education students who graduated with this degree at Concordia University, Chicago in the most recent data year.
UC is a very large public university located in the city of Cincinnati. A Best Colleges rank of #137 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means UC is a great university overall.
There were about 83 early childhood education students who graduated with this degree at UC in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the city of Chicago, NLU is a private not-for-profit university with a moderately-sized student population. This university ranks 12th out of 85 colleges for overall quality in the state of Illinois.
There were roughly 345 early childhood education students who graduated with this degree at NLU in the most recent data year.
OHIO Athens is a very large public university located in the town of Athens. A Best Colleges rank of #184 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means OHIO Athens is a great university overall.
There were roughly 159 early childhood education students who graduated with this degree at OHIO Athens in the most recent year we have data available.
NIU is a large public university located in the small suburb of Dekalb. This university ranks 20th out of 85 schools for overall quality in the state of Illinois.
There were approximately 29 early childhood education students who graduated with this degree at NIU in the most recent year we have data available.
Kent State is a very large public university located in the large suburb of Kent. This university ranks 9th out of 91 schools for overall quality in the state of Ohio.
There were roughly 126 early childhood education students who graduated with this degree at Kent State in the most recent year we have data available.
Here are some additional great schools for Early Childhood Education students in the Great Lakes Region that almost earned our Best Early Childhood Education Schools in the Great Lakes 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 Vgrigas.
Your choice of early childhood education school matters, so we have put together these rankings to help you make your decision. In order to come up with a best overall ranking for early childhood education schools, we combine our degree-level rankings, weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each level.
