Historical instructor

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.

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

What students say

Original student reviews · all captured dates

Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
I loved Dr. Reese! He is a very kind, smart, and funny guy, and his lectures were informative and covered a lot without being too broad or boring. He is easy to listen to, his lectures almost felt like storytelling. He used music, videos, and other props to make lectures more engaging. If you don't already enjoy history, Dr. Reese will get you to!
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Quality 4/5Difficulty 5/5
Professor Reese was very interesting in his lectures but you have to attend or you will not pass the class. The class required a lot of reading. The class is graded on two exams and a 12 page paper. Good class that required a lot of work.
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Quality 3/5Difficulty 4/5
Knows and loves history but talks so fast and gives so much information that it is sometimes hard to follow. Need to attend lectures to pass the class-- doesn't post slides online. LOTS of reading for homework, but relative to what is learned in lecture. Discussion sections help relate the two. Erin is an AWESOME TA so try to get her.
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EPS901 · course not matched
Quality 1/5Difficulty 5/5
Read 10 books in 10 weeks. He does most of the talking but participation is 70% of your grade. Unorganized. Not impressive.
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Quality 3/5Difficulty 1/5
Reese is a very casual, funny, and knowledgeable interactive lecturer. Very easy midterm and final in-class essays. Way too much reading for this class, but is somewhat necessary for the exams. Biggest complaint is that the course seemed more about general US history rather than education specifics.
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Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
Professor Reese is not only extremely knowledgeable on the history of American education, but every student in his class can directly see his passion for it. He kept me very interested in material and his personal anecdotes were memorable and fitting. He is one of my favorite professors I've had at UW
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Personal experiences, not a representative survey. Profile matching and captured coverage are shown in the source details.

Classes with William Reese

No teaching recorded in Fall 2026.

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Recorded teaching history

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Teaching history may be incomplete. Course pages contain course-specific feedback and citations.

Instructor identity & provenance
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