Ball State's Department of Educational Leadership has earned another national recognition from Leadership Excellence.

Leadership Excellence, which has a worldwide print circulation of 100,000 and is the only dedicated magazine of leadership development that annually rates the best programs in the country, recently ranked the Teachers College program as 10th in the country in its September issue.

As part of the rankings, the October issue of Leadership Excellence doled out its annual best practices honors, in which the Department of Educational Leadership earned an award for preparing leaders to be engaged educational experts.

"These honors are impressive since they reflect the mission of Teachers College and since Ball State was placed in such an ultracompetitive category," said Joseph McKinney, department chairman. "Not only are we vying with education programs and elite business schools such as the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard Business School, but we're also competing with healthcare companies and corporate giants like McDonalds for best practices honors."

The magazine surveyed more than 500 organizations to rank the best programs and best practices. Ball State builds leaders through advanced course work, projects and authentic leadership experiences, said Ken Shelton, the magazine's editor.

Some of the program's distinctive highlights include an intensive, yearlong internship program. Each student must also complete an in-depth community-oriented project. One student recently created a unique program that outlined clear expectations and provided a mentoring program for inner-city high school students.

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