Spring 2027

Economics of Race in the United States

Examines historical and contemporary causes of racial and ethnic economic inequality in the U.S., covering healthcare, education, labor, housing, wealth, and criminal justice.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Steve Trost4.4/5

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Rodney Stevenson

Exams were long, written essays, but students who attended class found they had everything needed in their notes to succeed.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Summarize the areas of racial economic inequality in the United States

  • Articulate how the economic and social history of the United States has affected present day circumstances regarding race and racial economic inequities in the U.S.

  • Identify how current policies, social institutions, and cultural assumptions work to maintain inequality.

  • Interpret economic models that attempt to explain the existence of inequality.

  • Synthesize existing economic research focused on the causes and effects of racial inequality.

  • Present the pros and cons of potential policy solutions to racial inequality.

  • Demonstrate self-awareness and empathy toward the cultural perspectives and worldviews of others.

  • Apply course concepts to their lives outside the classroom by respectfully participating in our multicultural society.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

ECON 101, 111,A A E 101, or 215 prior to Fall 2024

ECON 325

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

Prerequisite text tree

Professors

Spring 2027

Steve Trost

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.57/5 from 72 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.45 GPA, 70.5% A/AB (n=44 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.56 GPA, 78.0% A/AB (n=41 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

RODNEY E. STEVENSON is recorded teaching in Fall 2006, Spring 2007, Fall 2007, Spring 2008, Fall 2008, Spring 2009, Fall 2009, Fall 2010, Spring 2011. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

STEVE TROST is recorded teaching in Spring 2025, Spring 2026. 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
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 450

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

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Rodney Stevenson

Past students described lectures as clear, though somewhat dry, and noted that attending class provided sufficient notes for exams.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2011: 3.48 GPA, 61.3% A/AB (n=31 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.45 GPA, 70.5% A/AB (n=44 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.56 GPA, 78.0% A/AB (n=41 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Rodney Stevenson

Exams were long, written essays, but students who attended class found they had everything needed in their notes to succeed.

Past student reviews · Rodney Stevenson

The instructor was willing to explain material again and helped a student catch up after missing a class due to interviews.

Topics

  • Healthcare, education, labor markets, housing, wealth, and criminal justice
  • The African American experience
  • Policy responses to economic inequality

Skills

  • Studying and measuring economic differences across racial groups
  • Applying economic theory to disparities in treatment or impact on different groups
  • Evaluating potential policy solutions to racial inequality

Grades

Latest available · Spring 2026— 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 2026

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · 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

1280 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
ECON 325 · Spring 2027

Economics of Race in the United States

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:296:026914",
    "course_id": "ECON 325",
    "course_uid": "course_ce936eaec1600cd21b133a1d",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "026914",
    "source_subject_id": "296",
    "title": "Economics of Race in the United States",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Not Applicable"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

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
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "c91259c1269dfdb3b39ae7399996c009ddd6b4fa14ac85a997924c6818dbe8ee",
  "requirements_status": "needs_review",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}