All schools · Liberal arts college

Grinnell College

Grinnell College's course descriptions average 68.7 on the 100-to-0 ruler: clearly left of center. Across all 100 schools, the average is 67.5, so Grinnell College reads 1.2 points further left.

ShowCompared withDepartments

Liberal (100)center (50)Conservative (0)

Grinnell College: 68.7 (likely range 66.6 to 70.8) All 100 schools: 67.5 each other school in the comparison

Where its courses fall

0%Far left92–100

26%Left75–91

74%Center-left59–74

0%Center42–58

0%Center-right26–41

0%Right9–25

0%Far right0–8

42 plotted courses (the ones with a political framing). 100 = far left, 50 = the average American, 0 = far right.

See it for yourself

Framing Subject

Underlined: words the model quoted from the description when we asked it, after scoring, to explain its score.

Furthest left

GWS 395 · 01 - Advanced Special Topic: Abolitionist Feminisms88

Women's & Gender Studies

4 credits (Fall) Prisons are among the most rigidly sex-segregated institutions in the United States, and women are the fastest-growing demographic of incarcerated people. How did the prison industrial complex emerge as part of an…

See it for yourself →

SOC 395 · 02 - Advanced Special Topic: Black Radical Traditions83

Sociology

4 credits (Spring) This class explores the many strands of the Black radical tradition, those who seek to fundamentally challenge dominant interlocking systems of oppression. Topics will include racial capitalism; identity politics and…

See it for yourself →

ANT 395 · SP25 Viral News: Anthropological Investigations of Crisis and the Values of Information Media78

Anthropology

4 credits Spring Cross-listed as: ANT Through news portals, podcasts, and ethnographies of journalism, students will track and interrogate news that covers the social fallout from recent crises, including war, climate emergency, and the…

See it for yourself →

Furthest right

None. Grinnell College has 42 left-framed courses and not one right-framed course.

Why this number, in plain words

Political lean of course descriptions. Average Framing score (0 = far right, 50 = center, 100 = far left) of the scored courses in the group.

50 is the survey-anchored center of US adults on each issue (the "moderate" place of the ANES/GSS/PRRI seven-label ruler), not the cohort midpoint; scores above 50 read leftward, below 50 rightward.

Counted: courses with a Framing score (categories L/R/B/C). The likely range (95% interval) is 66.6 to 70.8; a comparison whose range overlaps this one is not a reliable difference.

Most course descriptions carry no political lean at all and are not in this average; the "share described from the left" view counts them.
Readings are of catalog description text, not of teaching, syllabi or individual professors.

Grinnell College by department (share of courses described from the left)

Department	Left-framed share	Courses
Women's & Gender Studies	61.5%	13	view
Sociology	30%	30	view
Anthropology	17.8%	45	view
History	8.2%	49	view
Political Science	7.4%	27	view
English & Comparative Literature	7.1%	70	view
Philosophy	5.7%	35	view
Religious Studies	5.6%	36	view
Psychology	3.0%	33	view
Art & Art History	2.2%	45	view
Economics	0%	40	view

Lean (mean Framing score) is not published per department within a school; only the left-framed share is. Department rows carry no interval.

Details: exact rows, definitions and method

Name	Metric	Value	95% interval	n	scored
Grinnell College	mean_bias_score	68.7	66.6 – 70.8	423	42
All 100 schools	mean_bias_score	67.5	67.4 – 67.7	124,290	10,124

Formula: SUM(bias_score) / COUNT(bias_score)
Interval: normal approximation: mean +/- 1.96 * sd / sqrt(n), sample sd (n-1); undefined when n < 2
Model / prompt / snapshot: gpt-5.6-sol · r12 (2026-10-16-le49-r12) · 6df50b10
Metric caveats: Scored courses only (L/R/B/C); N and I carry no score and are excluded, so n here is smaller than the group's course count. Scores are model readings of catalog description text against a fixed anchored definition, not teaching or syllabi. The interval covers sampling noise in the mean only; it does not represent model reading error. Every value carries a `method` label: exact_rows or histogram_midpoint.

Ask a question about Grinnell College · Make a school card