Leaders of the Kansas University special education program eagerly await their copy of U.S. News and World Report’s Best Graduate Schools edition each spring.

For nine of the past 10 years, their doctoral program has been ranked best in the nation among public universities.

“We put a lot of pressure on ourselves,” said Chriss Walther-Thomas, program chair. “We want to be No. 1. We strive very hard to achieve a high level. We take a lot of pride in that.”

For the special education program, the national reputation means being able to attract top-notch faculty and graduate students, which, of course, helps perpetuate the program’s quality.

KU administrators are hoping to replicate special education’s success — and the success of the city management and urban policy master’s program, also a perennial top-ranked program — throughout the university. Chancellor Robert Hemenway has long said KU’s goal is to be in the top 25 of public research universities in the nation, and KU received mixed messages during the past year on whether it is making progress toward that goal.

Mixed results

The U.S. News and World Report rankings are generally viewed by those who follow higher education as the premier ranking system, and it’s certainly the system that receives the most publicity.

The rankings examine data such as graduation rates, overall resources, faculty salaries and academic quality of the student body.

Last fall, KU’s overall ranking fell from 41st to 44th. The university has fallen from 30th place since 1998, when the magazine first separated public and private schools.

Hemenway has said declining state funding has hurt KU in the rankings, and the “student selectivity” category — which amounts to 15 percent of the rankings — also has hurt KU. Even with the qualified admissions law that went into effect several years ago, the state’s standards for who public universities must admit are low, he said.

The news was better in the spring, when the magazine announced graduate school rankings. Twenty-five KU programs were ranked in the top 25 among public universities, up from 22 the previous year. Twelve programs are in the top 10.

Other rankings

But Hemenway said the U.S. News and World Report rankings aren’t the only measure of KU’s success.

“I’ve always said our goal is to be one of the 25 best public universities in the country, and be acknowledged by informed people that that’s the case,” Hemenway said. “All that is is a proxy for quality. We need to be improving every single day.”

Another ranking, overall federal research expenditures, has improved from 65th to 45th since 1997. Federal life sciences expenditures ranking has increased from 45th to 29th during that time.

And Hemenway noted that the recent Documenting Effective Educational Practices report by the American Association for Higher Education was another measure of success. The report praised KU for engaging students and for its high-quality undergraduate teaching.

“I think we’re making progress,” said David Shulenburger, provost and executive vice chancellor. “It’s good to have a goal out there.”

Some faculty, staff and students have questioned whether the goal would put too much of a focus on research, which could hurt classroom instruction.

“The goal has caused some nervousness that we’ll focus entirely on research,” he said. “The only negative I see toward the goal is the nervousness, that we’ll take an eye off the whole university. It’s pretty clear we’re not doing that.”

Shulenburger said not having a large increase in state funds may keep KU from reaching the top 25.

“It’s possible to move in the direction of the top 25, and it may well be possible to get there,” he said. “When you set a goal, you can blame other people for not meeting it or you can do what you can on your own. We’re focusing on doing what we can.”