A novel approach to ranking physician assistant programs.

PURPOSE US News & World Report (US News) is the only known media publication that ranks physician assistant (PA) educational programs. In 2007 US News ranked only 73 schools based on a subjective survey of PA school faculty and administration. This study presents a new approach to the ranking of graduate PA programs. METHODS The 73 PA schools included in the 2007 US News ranking were ranked based on each school's current Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant (ARC-PA) accreditation length, student-to-faculty ratio, percentage of faculty with doctoral degrees, and the most recent 5-year average Physician Assistant National Certifying Examination (PANCE) pass rates. RESULTS The top three ranked schools were, in order, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, Oregon Health & Science University, and the University of Iowa. There was a weak-positive relationship between the standardized rankings and scores and rankings by US News (r = 0.40, r = 0.41, respectively). CONCLUSIONS This novel approach to ranking of PA programs provides a basis for improving the methods of future rankings.