Volume 34, Issue 4, of the Journal of Statistics and Data Science Education announces the winner of the Jackie Dietz Best 2025 JSDSE Paper Award, an annual award granted by the American Statistical Association to the best paper published in the previous year. Lisa W. Kay interviews William Notz and discusses the history of the award. The Jackie Dietz Best JSDSE Paper Award Collection maintains a record of all the awards.
The 2025 winning paper was written by Nicole Dalzell, Zoe Rehnberg, and Allison Theobold. The story of how this paper came to life—a collaboration not detailed in this issue—is worth sharing here:
Allison and Nicole met in the ASA Section on Statistics and Data Science Education mentoring program and started having regular chats both for friend time and to discuss topics in statistics and data science education. Through these chats, they learned that parts of both of their teaching styles were based on their own experiences of feeling excluded or isolated in the college classroom. They shared a belief that classrooms could—and should—feel different for their students. Zoe joined the pair with her own cool approaches to inclusion in the classroom from her lived experiences, and the group all decided to work together to try and show others how they might create a classroom where everyone feels welcome and valued. This led the three collaborating on a United States Conference on Teaching of Statistics workshop, which was later transformed into this JSDSE paper with the encouragement of Jack Miller and Jenny Green.
Episode 1 of the recently launched podcast series from JSDSE, titled “Learning Curves: Conversations from the Journal of Statistics and Data Science Education,” goes beyond the published text to offer details about the collaboration behind the research.
Issue 4 features more articles showcasing the wide scope of JSDSE. Johanna V. Loock and Alyssa Counsell scrutinized past JSDSE publications to show readers how to better show change during data analysis. For those seeking interesting datasets and stories they tell, the research article by Travis Weiland, Anthony Fernandez, and Ksenija Simic-Muller offers discussion and resources for facilitating the teaching of sensitive topics. William K. McHenry introduces a new lab exercise to illustrate how teachers can implement decision-based learning via canine data. Instructors can also learn about novel text-based class exercises for both middle school and college students in the article by Victor R. Lee, Elizabeth Finlayson Harris, Ruishi Chen, and Sarah Levine.
Additional topics featured in Issue 4 include computing tools for teaching statistical concepts, challenges in student learning, mathematical statistics, oral exams, and graduate student work with multivariate datasets. These topics are discussed by Katherine Zavez, Ofer Harel, Paulina N. Silva, Barbara W. Sarnecka, Peter E. Freeman, Matthew Ferrell, Justin Post, and Allison S. Theobold.
Volume 34, Issue 4, and all volumes of the journal can be accessed from the journal’s webpage. Feedback for the journal and questions may be emailed to Juana Sanchez.
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