Journal of Political Science Education (JPSE) 2024 Best Article Prize –

The Editors of the Journal of Political Science Education would like to announce that the 2024 Prize for Best Paper published in Volume 19 (2023) of the journal has been awarded to Mark Carl Rom, Jorge Abeledo, Randall Ellsworth, Noah Martin, & Lina Zuluaga for their article, “Engaging Students in American Politics: Effort and Accomplishment” (Volume 19, Issue 4).

The prize committee thought that the article was innovative, as it challenges our conceptions of valuable components of grading. The article focuses on how to assess learning gains through student effort and engagement as opposed to summative demonstration of knowledge only. The findings suggest that engagement and effort are positively related to learning gains, and that engagement and effort can partially balance out student preparedness. The committee found the article methodologically sophisticated. The committee also thought that the pedagogy analyzed in the article lends itself to application in many different classes, modalities, and educational environments and thus has the potential to be of interest to a wide audience and have broad impact.

We would like to thank the prize committee, Kerstin Hamann (chair), Mitchell Brown, and Loan Le, for their outstanding service.

About the Winners

Mark Carl Rom is devoted to improving teaching and learning in higher education. His recent research has focused on assessing student participation, improving grading accuracy, reducing grading bias, and improving data visualizations. Mark also explores and critiques the field of political science through symposia on academic conferences, ideology in the classroom, and ideology within the discipline. He is an Associate Professor of Government and Public Policy at Georgetown University.

Jorge Abeledo is the Director of the Youth Ambassadors program at Georgetown University’s Center for Intercultural Education and Development, a federally funded cultural exchange program designed to strengthen the leadership skills of young people from the Caribbean, Latin America, and the United States. Previously, Jorge was an Assistant Professor in the Institute of Human Development at the Universidad Nacional General Sarmiento in Argentina where he taught media and communication and conducted research on the use of informational technologies in education. Jorge holds a Master’s in Learning, Design, and Technology from Georgetown University.

Randal Ellsworth is a Senior Instructional Designer at AllenComm. Previously he was a graduate associate at CNDLS, where he supported learning design, technology-enhanced learning, and the Blended Learning Colloquium. Randal holds a Master’s in Learning, Design, and Technology from Georgetown University

Noah Martin is a Senior Designer for Learning Ecosystems at Georgetown University’s Red House, responsible for designing new educational transformation initiatives at the university as well as monitoring and growing existing projects. Noah is the current project lead for the Core Pathway Imitative at Georgetown University. Noah holds a Master’s in Learning, Design, and Technology from Georgetown University.

Lina Zuluaga co-authored the book AI in Latin America with the former ICT Ministers of Costa Rica and Mexico. She published a paper on using AI and blockchain to combat fake news, in collaboration with Phil Long, Georgetown Professor and former Vice Provost of Innovation at the University of Texas. Lina is a teaching fellow with Harvard’s Data Wise Project, and has served on the board of Telefónica – Movistar and also of Externado University in Colombia. Recently, Lina was invited by the International Science Council to speak on fostering AI research ecosystems.