Spring 2027

Community Organization and Change

COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION AND CHANGE examines theories of community change and different models of community organizing.

no offering record for this termCredits unavailable
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 No instructors listed

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Randy Stoecker

One student found the course very difficult, specifically citing the requirement to read Saul Alinsky and learn about sweatshops as a major challenge.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Situate oneself, individually, as an agent and (re)actor of change

  • Describe how the study of community organization development and change has evolved into a behavioral science over time, in a variety of settings and with multiple, equally valid approaches

  • Assess community need and readiness for change

  • Evaluate key change interventions and their efficacy for achieving intended outcomes

  • Discuss leadership and community organization with current professionals in the field

  • Construct a theory of change that demonstrates and articulates how a planned change effort is diagnosed, facilitated, implemented and evaluated

  • Synthesize and evaluate current academic literature to explore a current issue related to community organization and change

Source: UW Guide 1 UW Guide 2

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
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AB
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All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

Junior standing or (SOC 181,SOC/​C&E SOC 140, 210, or 211)

C&ESOC/SOC 573

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree

Professors

Spring 2027

No instructors recorded for this selection.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

RANDY STOECKER is recorded teaching in Fall 2007, Fall 2009, Fall 2010, Fall 2011, Spring 2013, Spring 2015, Spring 2016, Spring 2017, Spring 2019. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections.

Meeting source records

No records available.

Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Randy Stoecker

Students described the course as engaging and practical, with an instructor who was helpful and relatable. One student noted the opportunity to decide their own grading system.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2016: 3.86 GPA, 94.3% A/AB (n=35 letter grades); Spring 2017: 3.59 GPA, 81.8% A/AB (n=33 letter grades); Spring 2019: 3.45 GPA, 77.4% A/AB (n=31 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Randy Stoecker

One student found the course very difficult, specifically citing the requirement to read Saul Alinsky and learn about sweatshops as a major challenge.

Past student reviews · Randy Stoecker

A student appreciated the fairness of the grading structure, noting that earning more points through additional work directly resulted in a better grade.

Topics

  • Theories of community change
  • Models of community organizing
  • Evolution of community organization as a behavioral science
  • Leadership and professional practice in community organization

Skills

  • Assessing community need and readiness for change
  • Evaluating change interventions and their efficacy
  • Constructing a theory of change for planned efforts
  • Synthesizing and evaluating academic literature on community issues

Grades

Latest available · Spring 2019— not enough history to project Spring 2027.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Spring 2019

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2019 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1030 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

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Selected offering source records

No offering records for the selected term.

Raw records 
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Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
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Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
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Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

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Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "f5e34a20c44530f0e4ffa31b9346c86cf03f66d6d1034519c177ca4b9fd108f9",
  "requirements_status": "needs_review",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}