The Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) Outreach Group Corner is a regular component of Amstat News in which statisticians write about and educate our community about JEDI-related matters. If you have an idea or article for the column, email the JEDI Corner manager.

Jennifer Ward is a statistics instructor at Clark College (a two-year college) in Vancouver, WA. She has a BS in Mathematics from Oregon State University and a MS in Statistics from Portland State University. She’s an advocate for thoughtfully incorporating social justice topics into the statistics classroom. Outside of teaching, she loves polydactyl cats, learning ballet, and being a mom. You can reach her by email.

Jo Hardin is a Professor of Mathematics and Statistics at Pomona College. She did her undergraduate degree in Mathematics at Pomona College after which she got a PhD from UC Davis in Statistics. Her current research includes developing roust methods for high throughput data (think: genetic information), and she has an active undergraduate research group. Jo seeks to find ways to make statistics and data science more accessible, and she recently co-authored the online and completely free introductory statistics textbook, “Introduction to Modern Statistics”. When not working with students or on her research, she loves running, hiking, and jigsaw puzzles.

Entry Example 1 takes us to a 2017 paper in the Journal
of Statistics and Data Science Education titled “Critical
Values and Transforming Data: Teaching Statistics with Social Justice.”

If you have been reading the JEDI Corner over the last few years, you know members of the JEDI Outreach Group have worked to make the group an umbrella organization for justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) in all things statistics and data science. Some of the original JEDI committee members are also actively involved in educational work and revitalizing their classrooms with a JEDI lens. Early in discussions about how to bring JEDI into the classroom, we realized a central repository for JEDI-themed educational resources would be helpful for the entire community.

The Consortium for the Advancement of Undergraduate Statistics Education, known as CAUSE and supported by the ASA, is a national organization whose mission is to encourage the advancement of undergraduate statistics education by focusing on resources, professional development, outreach, and research. It is also the driving force behind USCOTS and eCOTS, two conferences focusing on teaching statistics and data science. CAUSE’s flagship endeavor is a website containing many resources across each of its missions.

Entry Example 2 provides a classroom activity to discuss ethical implications in data analyses. The
participants in the study selected their gender from four options: Male, Female, Non-Binary, and Other.

Recently, a group involved in both JEDI and CAUSE came together to create a space to host resources for JEDI-informed statistics teaching: the JEDI-CAUSE website.

JEDI-CAUSE Materials

Each entry on the JEDI-CAUSE website is relevant to statistics and data science education and has a JEDI theme. The entries are broken down into classroom areas such as examples, data, professional development, activities, pedagogy, and humanizing edutainment. They are also organized by JEDI content areas such as racial discrimination, climate change, criminal justice, gender discrimination, and bias.

To get the user started, the top of the page provides a list of the most common searches. Additionally, by random selection, the website spotlights a few entries from the database. Some entries are classroom activities, some are data sets, some are professional resources. All types of entries are welcome, but there are a few examples included here.

Entry Example 3 provides a reading list for learning about diversity, equity, and inclusion issues.

The entries found on the JEDI-CAUSE website are varied. One can find curated lists of resources, activities geared to a specific topic, data sets, and links to resources found on other websites.

Contributing Materials

If you have materials to contribute, submit them online. You will be asked to provide a few details about yourself, the title and description of the entry, and a link to materials (optional) or files to upload (optional).

If there is a resource you would like to see on the JEDI-CAUSE website but you don’t have materials to share, fill out the suggestion form.

Questions or comments can be emailed to Jo Hardin or Jennifer Ward.

To learn more about JEDI or CAUSE, visit the JEDI Outreach Group website or the CAUSE website.