Spring 2027

History of American Education

Examines the history of American education from colonization to the present, focusing on education as individual development and cultural transmission.

offering recorded3 credits

Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 William Reese3.8/5

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · William Reese

One student reported the class required a lot of work, with grading based on two exams and a 12-page paper, alongside a heavy volume of reading.

What you’ll be able to do

demonstrate their knowledge and explain the significance of key actors, events, themes, and ideas relating to the history of American education
interpret and contextualize primary historical sources
identify and evaluate historical arguments in secondary scholarly works
locate, synthesize, and evaluate information from primary and/or secondary sources in order to develop and support their own evidence-based historical interpretations
locate, synthesize, and evaluate relevant primary historical sources in order to construct evidence-based historical interpretations.

Source: UW Guide 1 UW Guide 2

Grade history

↗

average GPA
letter grades

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Professors

Spring 2027

William Reese

Adjusted rating

RMP difficulty

captured reviews

About this rating

Raw average: 4.09/5 from 11 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: 4.0/5 raw quality · 3.2/5 difficulty · 5 reviews

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

Past student reviews · William Reese

Professor William Reese taught with an interactive, storytelling style that students found engaging, though one reviewer noted he spoke too fast to follow easily. Past students reported heavy reading loads and emphasized that attendance was necessary because slides were not posted online. Assessment structures varied, with one student describing in-class essays and another citing two exams and a 12-page paper.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.62 GPA, 85.0% A/AB (n=120 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.70 GPA, 90.8% A/AB (n=98 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.65 GPA, 88.5% A/AB (n=96 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Past student reviews · Adam Nelson, Walter Stern

Walter Stern taught a reading- and writing-intensive course featuring multiple papers and a final exam. Students found his lectures engaging and appreciated his helpful feedback. The class required significant reading and analytical writing, which some found challenging but rewarding for improving their skills.

ADAM NELSON is recorded teaching in Fall 2006, Fall 2007, Fall 2010, Fall 2011, Fall 2012, Spring 2014, Fall 2014, Spring 2020, Fall 2020. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

DANIEL BERMAN is recorded teaching in Fall 2018, Fall 2022, Fall 2023. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

WALTER STERN is recorded teaching in Fall 2016, Fall 2017, Fall 2019, Fall 2021, Fall 2022, Fall 2024, Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

WILLIAM REESE is recorded teaching in Spring 2007, Spring 2008, Spring 2009, Spring 2010, Spring 2012, Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Spring 2015, Spring 2018, Spring 2023, Spring 2024, 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.

Section	Mode	Enrolled / capacity
LEC 001	Classroom Instruction	0 / 100
DIS 302	Classroom Instruction	0 / 25
DIS 303	Classroom Instruction	0 / 25
DIS 304	Classroom Instruction	0 / 25
DIS 301	Classroom Instruction	0 / 25
LEC 001	Classroom Instruction	0 / 97
DIS 301	Classroom Instruction	0 / 24
DIS 302	Classroom Instruction	0 / 25
DIS 303	Classroom Instruction	0 / 25
DIS 304	Classroom Instruction	0 / 25

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 · William Reese

William Reese delivered engaging, storytelling-style lectures using music and videos to make the history material accessible and enjoyable.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.70 GPA, 90.8% A/AB (n=98 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.63 GPA, 85.3% A/AB (n=95 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.65 GPA, 88.5% A/AB (n=96 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · William Reese

One student reported the class required a lot of work, with grading based on two exams and a 12-page paper, alongside a heavy volume of reading.

Past student reviews · William Reese

A student found it hard to follow the fast-paced delivery and heavy information load, noting attendance was essential because slides were not posted online.

Topics

Rise of common schools, education of marginalized groups, and evolution of teacher training.
Progressive school reform, desegregation, bilingual/special education policies, and the federal role in education.

Skills

Interpreting primary historical sources and explaining the significance of key actors, events, and themes in American educational history.
Developing and supporting evidence-based historical interpretations by synthesizing primary and secondary sources.

Grades

Spring 2027 · Projected

Before grades are released

– average GPA

Approximate 80% prediction interval

About this estimate

The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 5 same-season terms, weighted toward recent results.

The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.

8 earlier forecasts · 0.07 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Spring 2027

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

EDPOL/HISTORY 412 · Spring 2027

History of American Education

Recorded 2026-10-14

EDPOL/HISTORY 412 · Spring 2027

History of American Education

Recorded 2026-10-14

Raw records

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    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:310:005999",
    "course_id": "EDPOL/HISTORY 412",
    "course_uid": "course_7ee6ba9cbe4548a50ef23d2e",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "005999",
    "source_subject_id": "310",
    "title": "History of American Education",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring, Summer"
  },
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:448:005999",
    "course_id": "EDPOL/HISTORY 412",
    "course_uid": "course_7ee6ba9cbe4548a50ef23d2e",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "005999",
    "source_subject_id": "448",
    "title": "History of American Education",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring, Summer"
  }
]

Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews

Download part 1

Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades

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 Download part 2

Model & dataset provenance

{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "7300d5a44637ec06c464f8f1ce43ef23fb315c3027cf89cee7cde3824c2163cc",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}

History of American Education

Summary

What you’ll be able to do

Grade history

Prerequisites

Professors

William Reese

Calendar & sections

Student experience

the class

difficulty & workload

Topics

Skills

Grades

Spring 2027 · Projected

Grades over time

Where this course fits relative to UW–Madison

Sources & history

Catalog & offerings

Student reviews

Grade history

Where this course fits relative to