EDLF 2050

This class was an awesome class! Prof. Castleman and Alex were amazing professors and they were so kind and approachable, and made themselves available whenever you may have needed help. The topics and innovations covered were also super interesting and I loved hearing from guest speakers who were so cool and doing interesting things. The assignments were really interesting too because it allowed us to go deeper into the different innovations. I would 100% recommend this class!

Coming into this class as a first year I thought it was going to be an easy and interesting course. There is basically no work outside of class except the midterm, final, and one project. It was looking good until it was revealed how harshly these assignments were graded. The expectations on how to answer the test questions were absolutely ridiculous. I do not know a single person who did better than a B+ in this "easy" class. If you are really interested in the education industry then this class could be informative, but look elsewhere if your just looking for a class to fill your schedule.

I was excited about this course going into it and at the beginning because of the interesting topics we discussed and the guest speakers in the class, but this quickly changed when I realized how unfairly the course was graded. The grading is entirely subjective and it is completely impossible to discern how to answer quiz and test questions in a satisfactory manner. Additionally, after the midterm Ben and Andy explained that the course would be curved and that even though our midterm grades were very low ( below 50% for most) that if we were at the average grade for the class we should expect a B+ in the class if we continued to do about the same performance on the group project and final. I received the class average grade on the midterm and did very well on the group project and final, better than I had on the midterm, so I expected at the very least a B+ in the course. I found myself with a B in this course and I emailed Ben and he had basically no answer for me as to why this was, but that the curve that they had talked about previously was only an estimate and that even though I did better on future assignments and did better than most students on them that my grade went down anyway.... don't take this class!!!

This class was the bane of my existence, and I blame both the misleading early reviews of the course and the professors for changing the format of the class the year I decided to take it. To echo the other reviews, this is not an easy A class. I understand where those early reviews calling the class "inspirational" and "life-changing" are coming from, because the content of the class was really cool and interesting. I don't know what it was about the class, but I just couldn't keep my eyes open the whole time. I also didn't like my assigned seat or the idea of assigned seats. Besides the midterm and final, I put barely any effort into this course besides showing up (which was an arduous task in and of itself) and the group project. The format of the midterm and final is around 5 scenarios dealing with education, where you are supposed to explain in 200 or less words why one strategy is better than another in dealing with x issue. It's more difficult than you might think to condense an argument, supporting statistics, and a refute a counterargument in 200 words. I'm conflicted on whether it is worth it to attend the lecture. You will obviously know more about some of the programs asked about on the exams if you attend the lecture, but it's also open note so you could go to their website and generally find the same information. I'm a little bitter that I ended up with a B+ in a class that I counted on as being an easy and interesting A, but I can't complain too much since I did literally nothing outside of attending lecture.

THIS IS NOT AN EASY A CLASS. So like this class was cool and all with guest speakers... but the midterm was graded very harshly and so was the final. I ended with an A- due to my improvement on the final. But the TAs grade very subjectively and do a poor job at measuring my knowledge upon the subject area. It seems like they want more statistics than insight, which I am not really a fan of. I also went to every single lecture and I don't really think I got credit for that. Which is highly unfair, because I know some people who did the same as me or better and never came to class. But for the amount of work you have to put in (very little), I guess an A- is ok.

I have mixed feelings about this class. First off, it was super informative and opened my eyes to a lot of the "status quos" in education across America, and really informed me about a lot of the injustices and inequalities that less fortunate students face. Almost every class is a guest lecture, and they are almost always really interesting. There is a midterm, final, and group project- all are not that challenging as long as you attend lecture, however, the grading is very inconsistent. Ben and Andy try to make the class consistent, but it's not- the set up of the class is not suitable for a 400 person lecture. First off, only some students were assigned lecture quizzes, which is unfair. Also, the grading was really inconsistent in my opinion. I did really well on the first midterm, and did almost the same thing for the final, but did significantly worse, so I ended with an A-, which I do not believe is deserved because I attended every class, participated in lecture, and put a lot of time into the assignments. All in all, this is not an "easy A" class- I only know of two friends (out of many who were in the class) who received an A-. The class is informative, and Ben and Andy try their best to be accommodating, but it just simply isn't meant for the capacity that it had for this past fall. I recommend they decrease the size to 150-200 students.

Great and informational class but would be better as a seminar. Basically, every class a speaker comes in to talk about the topic of the week (education in prison, charter schools, online education, governors schools, etc.) and they're mostly interesting! But in a class of 400 it can be hard to participate. Also, this is not the easy A some people make it out to be. The midterm was graded pretty harshly, there is a group project in November (which is hard to coordinate and peer-graded) and then the final which is similar in format to the midterm. If you're interested in education/policy about education, I'd say this is worth it, but be willing to put in the work. Ben is such a great teacher though, and even in a huge lecture where I was assigned to the balcony (which sucked) he was easy to talk to and very nice and understanding to the whole class. Take this if you're interested in the subject and willing to take on a class with harsh grading but otherwise not much week-to-week work.

This is one of my favorite classes that I've taken at UVA. You don't have to be on the education/YSI track to find this class relevant or interesting - it definitely opens your eyes to see that everyone has some kind of role to play in the public education system, whether that be by going on to teach, going into ed policy, or simply being aware and wise about raising & educating your future children. Most of the class is doing minimal, usually pretty interesting reading(s) before class so that you are prepared to ask the guest speaker that will be there that day any questions you have about their innovation/program. You don't have to participate too often to get a good grade - they also have participation forms where you can submit questions if you didn't actually speak in class that day! The only big assignments would be writing a policy memo, a group project (where only a few groups are chosen to present), and a SWOT analysis at the very end. Grading is fair and they offer help if you need it. Ben Castleman is an incredible man and UVA is lucky to have him! I'd recommend the class solely based on being able to hear from him. (Andy, the co-teacher, wasn't as present.)

This class is amazing. I had no particular interest in education going into the semester, but left with some great perspective and passion for education reform. It opened my eyes to some huge issues in our country and introduced me to a remarkable breed of people who are dedicated to solving them.

There isn't a ton of work - as mentioned, there is reading you don't have to do, you can get away with not showing up to all the lectures, and there are only three assignments through the semester. To do a good job, each one took me about 6 hours or so. The class features a guest lecturer pretty much every week - all of them were very accomplished and interesting to listen to. Ben is a great teacher and person, and Andy is alright. Please take this class - it will certainly help you understand why certain things are the way they are.

This was by far my favorite class I've taken at UVA! Ben was super approachable, genuine, and very engaging. The readings were minimal and most classes we had guest speakers who were all fairly engaging; it was one of those things where I never dreaded going to class. There are only 3 assignments throughout the year: a memo, a group power point and a SWOT and they are all graded fairly generously. I have already recommended this class to a lot of friends and would HIGHLY recommend it to anyone, even if you aren't interested in education.

Ben, Andy, and all of the guest speakers that were brought into this class were outstanding. Ben and Andy are very passionate and engaging and work hard to bring fantastic speakers to every single class. Each class was different and featured a unique perspective from someone new on pertinent topics in education. The readings were very interesting and worthwhile but not necessary to get a good grade. I highly recommend this class to anyone even if they have no interest in education or teaching because it is absolutley fascinating.