Fall 2026

Comparative Education

EDPOL 240 Comparative Education examines global socio-cultural, political, and economic forces shaping education, including inequality, reform, and pedagogy.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Fall 2026 Jennifer Otting3.7/5Indranila BoseIsaac Phiri

Summary

1 / 7

The course includes readings, videos, three essays, and a project. One reviewer found the content easy to grasp and the workload manageable, while another noted the TA made the class more challenging than the professor.

Grade history

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

Prerequisites

Course map

None

  • None
EDPOL 240

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

Prerequisite text tree
  • None

Professors

Fall 2026
/5Adjusted rating
/5RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 3.78/5 from 18 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.

For this course: 3.5/5 raw quality · 2.2/5 difficulty · 13 reviews

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

Jennifer Otting is praised for her passion, knowledge, and engaging lectures that encourage student discussion and use helpful slides or guest speakers. Reviewers note the content is interesting and easy to grasp, with manageable reading loads and ample time for assignments.

Other reviewers criticize Otting for monotonic or robotic lectures, lack of grading rubrics, and poor email responsiveness. Concerns include confusing final paper requirements, surface-level content, and unexpected pop quizzes, with one student advising against taking her course.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.86 GPA, 92.8% A/AB (n=97 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.87 GPA, 95.6% A/AB (n=90 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.92 GPA, 96.8% A/AB (n=94 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Historical reviews of Mark Johnson: Mark Johnson is described as knowledgeable and nice, but his lectures are frequently criticized as boring, dry, and difficult to follow for undergraduates. Reviewers note he seems geared toward graduate students, with unclear grading expectations and low engagement, though some found projects flexible and grading easy.

JENNIFER OTTING is recorded teaching in Fall 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Spring 2025, Fall 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

MARK JOHNSON is recorded teaching in Fall 2021, Fall 2022, Spring 2023. 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

Fall 2026

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction49 / 501
DIS 301Classroom Instruction24 / 251
DIS 302Classroom Instruction25 / 250
DIS 303Classroom Instruction23 / 250
DIS 304Classroom Instruction10 / 250
LEC 002Classroom Instruction33 / 500

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

Jennifer Otting receives sharply divided reviews. Some students find her lectures intriguing, engaging, and passionate, while others describe her as monotonic, robotic, and unresponsive to emails. Quality ratings range from 1 to 5, reflecting this polarization.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.86 GPA, 92.8% A/AB (n=97 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.87 GPA, 95.6% A/AB (n=90 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.92 GPA, 96.8% A/AB (n=94 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

The course includes readings, videos, three essays, and a project. One reviewer found the content easy to grasp and the workload manageable, while another noted the TA made the class more challenging than the professor.

Positive reviews highlight engaging group discussions, live speakers, and helpful slides. Negative reviews cite surface-level content, lack of grading rubrics, confusing final paper questions, and unexpected pop quizzes not mentioned in the syllabus.

Topics

  • Socio-cultural, political, and economic forces in education
  • Purposes of schooling in different locations
  • Schooling, inequality, and social change
  • Class, race, gender, migration, language, and abilities in education
  • Global educational reform
  • Global educational assessments
  • Curriculum and pedagogy
  • Teacher education

Skills

  • Analyze socio-cultural, political, and economic forces in education
  • Evaluate the purposes and ends of schooling
  • Assess the role of schooling in inequality and social change
  • Examine global educational reform, assessments, curriculum, and teacher education

Grades

Latest available · Spring 2026— not enough history to project Fall 2026.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

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AB
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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

1283 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
EDPOL 240 · Fall 2026

Comparative Education

Recorded 2026-09-07
Raw records
[
  {
    "run_id": "20260907T155543-ce3781c4",
    "semester": "1272",
    "observed_at": "2026-09-07 15:55:43.033547+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1272:310:005996",
    "course_id": "EDPOL 240",
    "course_uid": "course_1e9b909bb2212163d641fabc",
    "term_id": "1272",
    "source_course_id": "005996",
    "source_subject_id": "310",
    "title": "Comparative Education",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring"
  }
]
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.

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Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-09-07

Download the original dataset
Model outputs & technical records
nvidia/Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-NVFP4
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance
{
  "model": "nvidia/Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-NVFP4",
  "model_revision": "1355db6a052410cfd62085d94b58866fd0f2c3c5",
  "task_version": "14",
  "output_id": "a6ef63f8960e7722166b019308d49013b66c00f1ebae9cb00d2b8418aade0534",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "e243353dcb7d79b7247ced91d69443ef4c2a6349",
  "observed_at": "2026-09-07 15:55:43.033547+00:00"
}