photo by: Mike Yoder

Joseph R. Pearson Hall, home of KU's School of Education, near 11th Street and West Campus Road, is pictured in this file photo from 2008.

The University of Kansas has two graduate programs that are the top-ranked public degree programs in the entire country, according to U.S. News & World Report rankings released Tuesday.

KU’s graduate degree program in local government management and its graduate program for special education are both ranked No. 1 among all public universities in the country.

KU’s local government management program — which trains future city administrators and other similar government professionals — has been the top-ranked program in the U.S. News & World Report rankings since 1998.

In total, KU had 11 graduate programs ranked in the top 10 of public universities. That’s an improvement over last year, when KU had nine programs in the top 10.

KU’s graduate programs in urban policy and paleontology — the study of fossils — were the two programs that joined the list of top 10 programs this year.

Here’s look at the complete top 10 list:

• Local government management, No. 1

• Special education, No. 1

• Paleontology, No. 3

• Public management and leadership, No. 5

• Physical therapy, No. 6

• Speech-language pathology, No. 6

• Education, No. 7

• Medicine-primary care, No. 9

• Occupational therapy, No. 9

• Audiology, No. 10

• Urban policy, No. 10

KU also had 52 programs ranked in the top 50 among public universities. Here’s a look at the other programs that made the top 50 ranking: nursing-midwifery, No. 11; petroleum engineering, No. 13; educational psychology, No. 13; public affairs, No. 13; nursing-anesthesia, No. 14; public finance and budgeting, No. 14; clinical child psychology, No. 15; family medicine, No. 16; dispute resolution, No. 17; social work, No. 22; pharmacy, No. 23; clinical psychology, No. 30; biostatistics, No. 31; history, No. 32; psychology, No. 33; environmental law, No. 33; aerospace engineering, No. 34; medicine — research, No. 34; constitutional law, No. 35; fine arts, No. 35; chemistry, No. 36; full-time law, No. 36; contracts-commercial law, No. 37; civil engineering, No. 40; English, No. 40; international law, No. 40; business-corporate law, No. 40; legal writing, No. 40; sociology, No. 40; environmental engineering, No. 41; mathematics, No. 41; political science, No. 41; full-time MBA, No. 42; tax law, No. 43; intellectual property law, No. 46; economics, No. 47; criminal law, No. 47; biology, No. 49; trial advocacy, No. 49; Earth sciences, No. 50; chemical engineering, No. 50.

U.S. News & World Report also provided broader rankings for entire graduate schools within public and private universities. KU’s School of Education was the top-ranked school in the region, checking in tied at No. 14 among all public and private universities. That was the highest ranking of any program in the Big 12, with the University of Texas’ education school ranked No. 18. In the state, Kansas State ranked No. 121 among public and private universities.

In other overall graduate school rankings, KU’s engineering school ranked No. 102 among public and private universities, while Kansas State’s ranked No. 109. Wichita State had the highest-ranked engineering school in the state at No. 59. The Big 12 also had two engineering schools rank in the top 50 among public and private universities, with the University of Texas at No. 6 and Iowa State at No. 48.

KU’s law school ranked No. 67 among public and private universities, while Washburn University’s law school in Topeka ranked No. 105. Nearby, the University of Missouri-Kansas City ranked No. 114.

KU’s medical school ranked No. 64 among public and private universities, while the University of Missouri-Kansas City ranked No. 85.