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Best Value Education Master's Degree Schools in California

2023 Best Value Education Master's Degree Schools in California

Identifying Quality Schools at More Affordable Prices

57 Colleges
$9,783 Avg Tuition & Fees*
$49,367 Avg Salary

Finding the Best Education Master's Degree School for You

In 2020-2021, education students earned 25,545 degrees and certificates from a California school, making the subject the 7th in the state.

There are lots of options to pick from today when trying to decide which program is right for you. You're no longer limited to schools in your local area, either, since online programs are becoming more prevalent. Or you may find the programs at a trade school to be a better alternative for you.

Along with in-depth profiles of schools and the programs they offer, Course Advisor has created the Best Value Education Master's Degree Schools in California to help you in your search for the best school for you. This report analyzed 57 schools in California to see which ones offered the best value master's degree programs for education students. The goal was to highlight schools with more affordable prices than others offering similar quality experiences.

When determining this ranking, we place a high emphasis on the school's quality as well as its sticker price. Even though a college may be affordable, it may not offer value. More specifically, we discount our quality score by the published tuition and fees charged by a school. This gives the cost per unit of quality for each college. The value is determined by how much quality your dollar buys.

Our calculations use out-of-state tuition and fees in our nationwide and regional rankings. Average in-state tuition and fees are used for our statewide rankings.

Top 10 Best Education Master's Degree Schools

Our 2023 rankings named Concordia University, Irvine the best value school in California for education students working on their master’s degree. Located in the large city of Irvine, Concordia University, Irvine is a private not-for-profit college with a small student population.

Concordia University, Irvine graduate students pay an average of $8,564 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

In addition to its great value ranking, Concordia University, Irvine is in the top 15% of all schools on our Best Education Master’s Degree Schools in California list.

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You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend California State University - Long Beach. It ranked #2 on our 2023 Best Value Education Master’s Degree Schools in California list. Located in the city of Long Beach, CSULB is a public school with a fairly large student population.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at CSULB are $8,280 a year.

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You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around you if you attend California State University - Sacramento. The school came in at #3 on this year’s Best Value Education Master’s Degree Schools in California list. Sac State is a very large public school located in the city of Sacramento.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at Sac State are $8,826 per year.

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A rank of #4 on this year’s list means California State University - Los Angeles is a great value for education students working on their master’s degree. Cal State LA is a fairly large public school located in the city of Los Angeles.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at Cal State LA are $8,219 per year.

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A rank of #5 on this year’s list means California State University - Fullerton is a great value for education students working on their master’s degree. Located in the large suburb of Fullerton, Cal State Fullerton is a public school with a fairly large student population.

Cal State Fullerton graduate students pay an average of $8,410 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

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California State University - San Bernardino ranked #6 on this year’s Best Value Education Master’s Degree Schools in California list. CSUSB is a fairly large public school located in the midsize city of San Bernardino.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at CSUSB are $8,647 a year.

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California State University - San Marcos came in at #7 in this year’s edition of the Best Value Education Master’s Degree Schools in California ranking. CSUSM is a fairly large public school located in the suburb of San Marcos.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at CSUSM are $9,161 per year.

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California State University - Fresno ranked #8 on this year’s Best Value Education Master’s Degree Schools in California list. Fresno State is a fairly large public school located in the city of Fresno.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at Fresno State are $8,087 a year.

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With a ranking of #9, California State University - East Bay did quite well on this year’s best value schools for education students working on their master’s degree. Cal State East Bay is a large public school located in the suburb of Hayward.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at Cal State East Bay are $8,429 per year.

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California State University - Northridge came in at #10 in this year’s edition of the Best Value Education Master’s Degree Schools in California ranking. CSUN is a very large public school located in the large city of Northridge.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at CSUN are $8,477 a year.

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Best Value Education Colleges in the Far Western US Region

Explore all the Best Value Education Colleges in the Far Western US Area or other specific states within that region.

State Degrees Awarded
Washington 5,206
Oregon 4,001
Hawaii 830
Nevada 1,387
Alaska 331

Education Majors to Study

Major Annual Graduates
Teacher Education Grade Specific 110,226
Educational Administration 46,469
Teacher Education Subject Specific 43,297
Special Education 36,792
General Education 29,810
Curriculum & Instruction 19,832
Student Counseling 13,858
Instructional Media Design 8,695
Teaching English or French 5,791
Other Education 4,858
Teaching Assistants 2,751
Educational Assessment 2,552
Multilingual Education 1,910
Education Philosophy 737
International Education 293

Related Major Annual Graduates
Social Sciences 205,984
Psychology 195,678
Communication & Journalism 120,571
Family, Consumer & Human Sciences 55,820
History 32,731

Notes and References

*These averages are for the top 25 schools only.

  • 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 Horadrim.

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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