Class record · ENGL · MCAS

ENGL 1180

Lit Core: From Slavery to Mass Incarceration · 1 instructor on record · 4 sections

How the curve score is built

84Teaching92 raw · 73rd percentile of BC classes

±0Easiness adjustmenteasiness 78 · 55 raw workload · lighter than 55% of BC classes

84Curve scorethe teaching curve ±0 for the workload · at most ±6 either way

Boston College's ratings are bunched at the top — the median instructor averages about 88 out of 100 on the raw scale, and 44% of them clear 90 — so a raw score cannot separate anybody. Every figure here is ranked against BC classes and that rank is re-expressed out of 100, which is what turns a raw 88 — the middle of the university — into a figure that says where somebody actually stands. On this scale 77 is the median, 84 the top quarter and 91 the top tenth. Workload is then an adjustment on top of that, worth nothing at all for an ordinary one. Lighter work than 55% of BC classes.

What the course score is made of

92BC evaluations4 records · weight ×1.0 · Spring 2022 – Spring 2026

—Student reviewsno reviews — does not contribute

—RateMyProfessorsno ratings — does not contribute

The class itself, averaged across everyone who taught it — who taught it is the board below.

How is this worked out?

That is what a student picking a section is actually choosing between: the board carries each instructor's own score for this class, and the score above is the class averaged across all of them.

What the challenge rank is made of

48thMore challenging than 48% of BC classesranked against every one we hold

90BC — “Intellectually Challenging”4 records · raw score out of 100

Boston College's own “intellectually challenging” question. It is not a measure of difficulty, grading or workload.

How is this worked out?

Boston College's own “intellectually challenging” question for this class only — students answer it positively about courses that stretched them, so it measures intellectual challenge and NOT grading, workload or quality. Almost every BC class scores high on it, which is why it is shown as a rank rather than a score.

What the workload rank is made of

45thMore work than 45% of BC classesranked against every one we hold

55BC — “Workload”4 records · raw score out of 100

One of Boston College's five workload bands, not a number of hours. Higher means more work, not worse.

How is this worked out?

Boston College reports workload for this class only as one of five bands, not as a number of hours, and it does not publish what the bands mean — so this site will not translate it into hours. Higher means more work, which is not the same as worse.

This section of Literature Core will focus on narratives that speak to questions of slavery, incarceration, and freedom--both literal and metaphorical. The current pandemic along with the mass demonstrations against systemic racial injustices will provide a particular backdrop and context from which to consider these questions and issues. The course will start with historical and political writings about slavery from the 1800s and the social contexts in which these writings were produced and consumed. We will them move on to historical and contemporary fiction and film that informs and challenges our historical understanding of slavery and the relationship between slavery and our current system of incarceration. Course texts may include Homegoing (Yaa Gaysi), The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, David Walker's Appeal, Beloved (Toni Morrison), Kindred (Octavia Butler), The Nickel Boys (Colson Whitehead), and Just Mercy (Bryan Stevenson).

The only instructor on record

4 sections · nobody else has taught itFull record

Instructor	Curve	Easiness	Challenge	RMP overall
Marla DerosaProfessor of the Practice; Director of Undergraduate Studies · English	8694 raw · 4 records	75±0 to the score	48th	949 ratings · all classes

There is no ranking to read here: Marla Derosa is the only instructor with evaluation records for ENGL 1180, so the number is a record, not a position. The RateMyProfessors figure is their overall score across everything they teach, not their score in this class.

Also taught by Marla Derosa

6 other classes

Class	Instructors	Course score
ENGL 1080Literature Core	90257 records	80
ENGL 1729The Role of Literature in Understanding the Complex Meaning of Justice	16 records	95
ENGL 3011The Art of Tutoring Writing	35 records	91
ENGL 1110First Year Writing Seminar: From Slavery to Mass Incarceration	14 records	87
ENGL 2141American Literary History I	24 records	87
ENGL 3220Teaching Banned Books: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Young Adult Literature	11 record	88

Other ENGL classes

All of them

Class	Instructors	Course score
ENGL 1010First Year Writing Seminar	136442 records	80
ENGL 1080Literature Core	90257 records	80
ENGL 1079Literature Core for Multilingual Students	1340 records	89
ENGL 2221Introduction to Creative Writing	936 records	90
ENGL 2133Studies in Narrative	1634 records	87
ENGL 2131Studies in Poetry	1333 records	84

The line

All 13 items · means across 4 records

Instructor4

Course3

Feedback3

Workload & Challengenot ratings

Bars are ranks, not raw scores. Nothing here is graded good or bad.

What each item asks

Explains Clearly: The instructor was effective at creating an understanding of difficult subject matter.
Available: The instructor was available for help outside of class.
Motivating: The instructor motivated me to do my best work.
Sparks Interest: The course stimulated my interest in the subject matter.
Organized: The course was well organized.
Clear Goals: The learning objectives for the course were clear.
Useful Later: What I learned is applicable beyond this course.
Assignments: Assignments and exams contributed to my learning.
Fast Feedback: I received feedback on my work in a timely manner.
Useful Feedback: The feedback I received on my work was meaningful.
Workload: How much work the course took outside class, on Boston College's five-band scale — the band boundaries are not published, so this is not a number of hours.
Challenge: The course was intellectually challenging.
Attendance: Attending class was necessary to do well in this course.

Why these numbers are curved

Both the number and the bar are the rank against every comparable record we hold, printed back out of 100. BC's questions all have a median around 4.5, so on the raw scale every cell here would read in the high eighties and every bar would be nearly full — thirteen numbers that tell you nothing. Each cell prints its raw BC figure and its percentile underneath, so nothing is hidden by the transform. Every bar is one ink colour — nothing here is graded green or red. The hatched bars are not ratings at all: a higher number on either describes a different course, not a better one.

Game log

4 sections · newest first

Instructor	Term	Sec	Instr	Course	Work
Marla Derosa	Spring 2026	01	93	95	60
Marla Derosa	Fall 2024	01	91	90	40
Marla Derosa	Fall 2022	01	93	90	60
Marla Derosa	Spring 2022	01	98	94	60

How to read this board

Instructors are ranked on their record in this class only, never on their average across everything they teach. Scores are out of 100 — Boston College's 1–5 agreement scale, ×20, the way these numbers were printed for years. Workload is BC's own five-band figure, not a number of hours, and is shown as a rank. A dash means the question was not reported, and is never a zero.