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Macalester College

Macalester College's course descriptions average 67.7 on the 100-to-0 ruler: clearly left of center. Across all 100 schools, the average is 67.5, so Macalester College reads 0.1 points further left.

ShowCompared withDepartments

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

Macalester College: 67.7 (likely range 66.0 to 69.4) All 100 schools: 67.5 each other school in the comparison

Where its courses fall

5%Far left92–100

43%Left75–91

36%Center-left59–74

11%Center42–58

2%Center-right26–41

3%Right9–25

1%Far right0–8

193 plotted courses (the ones with a political subject). 100 = far left, 50 = the average American, 0 = far right. Subject places what a course studies, not the side it takes.

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Framing Subject

Subject places what a course studies, not the side it takes. A course on slavery or the Holocaust lands far right and a course on Marx or the Soviet Union lands far left, whether the course praises, criticizes or simply describes it.

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

Furthest-left subjects

AMST 205 · Trans Theories and Politics100

Ethnic & African American Studies

Cross-Listed as WGSS 205 In less than ten years we have gone from Laverne Cox gracing the cover of Time Magazine, declaring that we have reached the "transgender tipping point," to a broad based anti-trans culture war. From Caitlyn Jenner…

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HIST 262 · Revolutionary Russia and the Soviet Union100

History

Cross-Listed as RUSS 262 A survey of Russian, Soviet and post-Soviet history from the Russian Revolution to the present. Topics include the Bolshevik revolution of 1917, Bolshevik rule and its tsarist heritage, Soviet "monocratic" society…

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PHIL 216 · Reading Marx100

Philosophy

Cross-Listed as GERM 316 For Marx, "private capital" is an oxymoron - a contradiction in terms, since by its very nature capital is social. And "philosophy" is really not a thing, at least not the way it's always been defined, since the…

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Furthest-right subjects

HIST 367 · The Holocaust0

History

This reading- and writing-intensive course will explore one of the most tragic and transformative events of the 20th century: The Holocaust. Over the course of the semester, we will ask: What made the Holocaust possible? In what ways did…

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HIST 256 · Transatlantic Slave Trade8

History

Cross-Listed as AMST 256 This class examines the Atlantic commerce in enslaved Africans that took place between 1500 and 1800. We will explore, among other topics, transatlantic commerce, the process of turning captives into commodities,…

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ART 280 · Art and Architecture of Ancient Egypt12

Art & Art History

This course explores the making and function of art and architecture in ancient Egypt along with its socio-economic and political context from pre-dynastic times (ca. 5300 - 3000 BCE) to the Roman era (30 BCE - 391 CE). The lectures and…

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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 66.0 to 69.4; 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.

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

Department	Left-framed share	Courses
Women's & Gender Studies	45.1%	51	view
Ethnic & African American Studies	39.3%	61	view
Psychology	29.0%	31	view
History	18.8%	85	view
Political Science	18.0%	61	view
Sociology	17.6%	34	view
Religious Studies	13.3%	45	view
Anthropology	10.2%	49	view
Art & Art History	5.6%	54	view
Philosophy	5.4%	37	view
English & Comparative Literature	3.0%	67	view
Economics	1.8%	57	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
Macalester College	mean_bias_score	67.7	66.0 – 69.4	632	109
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.

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