Ball State's Department of Educational Leadership has been ranked by Leadership Excellence as one of the nation's top 10 leadership development programs. Leadership Excellence, the only dedicated magazine of leadership development that annually rates the best programs in the country, has ranked the Teachers College program as 10th, tied with Emory University.

"I'm particularly proud of this honor since we had to submit our application to such an ultra-competitive category, vying with elite business schools and education programs across the country," said Joseph McKinney, department chairman. "We're listed with the University of Michigan, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard Business School — I'm proud our department is associated with such prestigious institutions."

The magazine surveyed more than 500 organizations to rank the best programs and practices. The programs were analyzed for fulfilling their mission, accountability, curriculum, presentation, take-home value for participants and outreach, said Ken Shelton, Executive Excellence editor.

Some of the department's highlights are:

• almost one-third of current Indiana school superintendents received their license through the department
• having the largest off-campus distance education master's degree program at Ball State, representing approximately 25 percent of the university's fall off-campus student enrollment
• faculty have published in the following journals: Educational Administration Quarterly, Educational Leadership, Journal of Law and Education, Journal of School Business Management, ERS Spectrum, Journal of Research and Information, College and University, Education Law Reporter, Educational Research Quarterly, Journal of Technology Studies, Peabody Journal of Education and American School Board Journal
• the department sponsors five study councils made up of 133 public school superintendents across Indiana (45 percent of all Indiana school corporations)

(Note to editors: For more information, contact McKinney at (765) 285-8495 or jmckinne@bsu.edu.)