Economics of Education
This course analyzes contemporary education policy issues through an economics lens, covering teacher labor markets, school choice, education finance, and returns to education using human capital and production function frameworks.
Summary
Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.79 GPA, 91.7% A/AB (n=24 letter grades).
What you’ll be able to do
Demonstrate a strong degree of economic literacy and articulate economic perspectives
Discuss the production, costs, and financing of K-12 and higher education systems
Describe economic aspects of teachers, teacher quality, and teacher labor markets;
Differentiate broad K-12 and higher education markets, choices, and incentives through an economic lens
Review, synthesize, and critique economic literature on a variety of education policy issues
Practice critical reading, logical thinking, and use of evidence within the economics discipline
Demonstrate skilled written and verbal communication on multiple points of view across topics
Generate and communicate recommendations for policy and practice by synthesizing theory and contexts
Source: UW Guide
Grade history
↗All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors
Prerequisites
Course mapSophomore standing
- Sophomore standing
This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.
Prerequisite text tree
- Sophomore standing
Professors
Spring 2027No instructors recorded for this selection.
Historical instructors & teaching patterns
Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.
Calendar & sections
Spring 2027Schedule loads here as you scroll.
| Section | Mode | Enrolled / capacity | Waitlist |
|---|
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
Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.79 GPA, 91.7% A/AB (n=24 letter grades).
difficulty & workload
No workload feedback recorded.
Topics
- Human capital and education production function
- Teacher labor markets and quality
- School choice
- K-12 and higher education finance
- Individual and collective returns to education
Skills
- Economic literacy and articulation of economic perspectives
- Reviewing, synthesizing, and critiquing economic literature
- Skilled written and verbal communication
- Generating and communicating policy recommendations
Grades
Latest available · Spring 2024— not enough history to project Spring 2027.
Grade distribution · % of letter grades
More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data
Not enough comparable courses for Spring 2027 in UW–Madison.
Sources & history
Catalog & offerings
Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.
Catalog observation history
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Raw records
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Student reviews
Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.
Read original reviews
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Grade history
Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.
Explore recorded gradesRecorded 2026-10-14
Model outputs & technical records
LLM outputs across runs
Full model traces
Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.
Model & dataset provenance
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"requirements_status": "valid",
"dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
"observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}