Urban Debate Leagues: An Effective and Proven Solution to Raise Graduation Rates in Low-Performing Urban Schools
One of the most pressing challenges in education is ensuring that all students graduate from high school. So long as a significant portion of our nation’s students struggle to finish high school, advances in college completion rates or workplace readiness cannot meaningfully proceed. In a new research study conducted in conjunction with the University of Michigan, the Consortium on Chicago School Research, and Chicago Public Schools, Dr. Briana Mezuk demonstrates that participation in urban debate dramatically raises graduation rates for low performing urban students. The study looked at academic records from a sample of 12,179 Chicago public school students, including 2,449 urban debate participants. Of these students, she further examined outcomes for 2,614 African American male students, of whom 458 competed in urban debate. All statistical findings were examined in light of eighth grade achievement test scores, to adjust for the possibility that debate inherently attracts high-achieving students.
Findings at a Glance
- Overall, Chicago students in the sample had a high school graduation rate of 55 percent.
- Among urban debaters in Chicago schools, the graduation rate was around 77 percent.
- African American males in Chicago schools graduate at a rate of about 44 percent.
- African American males who participated in urban debate graduated at a rate of 73 percent
I. Urban School Systems Are Struggling to Educate Students, Leading to High Dropout Rates with National Economic Implications
Urban school systems face well-documented challenges that deserve the attention of federal, state, and local policy makers. The schools that serve the most densely populated cities contain a disproportionately high number of lower-income students and students of color.1 Students attending these low performing schools consistently graduate at a rate far below the national average.2 The schools facing the greatest challenges represent a small number of the total number of school districts in America, yet they educate about a quarter of American students, including 40 percent of the nation’s students of color and 30 percent of low-income students.3
Educators have explored different strategies to address the specific challenges faced by those urban students who struggle to complete high school. An emerging body of published and forthcoming research points to Urban Debate Leagues (UDLs) as an innovative, effective solution to the low numbers of urban students graduating college and career ready. UDLs are policy debate programs specifically geared to urban students. In recently published research, Dr. Briana Mezuk used the records of students in the Chicago Public School from a ten-year period to evaluate the effect of urban debate on student outcomes. Her research found that students who participated in urban debate were significantly more likely to graduate from high school than their peers.4 The study also evaluated debate’s effect on outcomes for a specific, oft-neglected subgroup, African American males. It found that for these traditionally underperforming students, urban debate has an even more dramatic effect on graduation rates.5
UDLs deserve the attention of educators grappling with setting municipal, state-wide and national strategies for improving high school graduation rates. Identifying innovative, effective solutions to improve outcomes in the lowest performing schools is a pressing priority because the challenges facing these schools are not isolated. As immigration increases and American cities struggle to compete in the global economy, educators who have never before taught in settings with these structural challenges will need to embrace approaches that help secure academic success.6
Dropping out of high school has economic repercussions for both individuals who drop out and the local and national economies. Those who drop out face increased chances of serving jail time,7 needing public assistance,8 and being jobless.9 These conditions create a negative feedback loop, increasing the likelihood that an entire urban area will face economic stagnation.10 Successful efforts to improve outcomes in districts with the highest concentrations of low performing schools11 can interrupt this negative feedback loop, promoting equality and national economic progress.12
II. Interventions That Significantly Reduce Dropout Rates are Necessary
In recent years, educators and policymakers have focused on improving dropout rates and on increasing the number of young people who graduate from high school ready for college and careers. National, state, municipal, and school leaders are increasingly focused on identifying evidence-based practices that incorporate the twin goals of keeping students in school through graduation and effectively preparing them for what comes next.
Despite high-profile efforts, graduation rates around the country have shown only minimal improvement.13 “Promoting power,” an indicator of movement from grade to grade within schools, which ultimately measures movement out of the school through graduation, and graduation rates have remained stubbornly low in urban school districts.14 Indeed, a range of sources using several measures conclude that, despite improvements in national dropout rates, students who grow up in low-income communities of color and attend urban schools have a significantly lower chance of graduating high school than national rates and national goals suggest.15 This gap arises largely because urban students face challenges including economic disadvantage (which influences academic preparation and chances of attending a well-funded school) and a lack of real school choice (urban students disproportionately attend “neighborhood” schools with unusually low-performing academic performance).16 Such urban students often attend schools that effectively function as “dropout factories.”17
III. Research Indicates that Participating in Urban Debate Significantly Increases Graduation Rates for At-Risk Students
A. Urban Debate Leagues – A Public-Private Partnership to Improve the Lowest Performing Schools
Urban Debate Leagues train and enable students to participate in competitive policy debate. Teacher-coaches supervise student-directed projects, including research for debate arguments, public speaking in time-pressured competitive settings, and argumentative advocacy. The National Association for Urban Debate Leagues (NAUDL) builds, strengthens, expands and connects UDLs. The NAUDL organizes UDLs as partnerships between urban school systems and local private leaders. Following the NAUDL best practices approach, UDLs have already been established in many of the most populous urban school districts,18 and in most of the school systems with the highest number of critically low-performing schools.19 The NAUDL continues to bring the UDL approach to scale in cities around the country, aiming to facilitate participation in organized debate activities for as many urban students as possible.20
B. Research Indicates that Urban Debate Leagues are a Highly Effective Strategy to Increase Academic Achievement and High School Graduation Rates
Dr. Mezuk’s study of the effect of urban debate focused on a sample of some of those students least likely to graduate: African-American male students. The study found that in a school district where only 45 percent of African-American males finish high school, those African American males who participated in urban debate graduated at a rate of 73% -- that is, they were nearly 70 percent more likely to graduate.21 The study also found that urban debate had a positive effect on graduation rates for the sample as a whole: among all urban debaters included in the study, the graduation rate was around 77 percent, compared to a graduation rate of around 55 percent for non-debaters.22 This research suggests that urban debate improves the outcomes for the students facing some of the highest hurdles.
The finding that urban debate reduces dropout rates is consistent with more general research on factors known to influence dropout rates. Researchers have identified “pull” or “alterable” factors, which educators can cultivate to decrease dropout rates; such factors create positive outcomes despite the presence of “unalterable” or “push” factors related to the student’s life situation.23 Factors which keep students in school despite the pressures of their given situation include feelings of academic engagement, self-motivation, and autonomy.24 Students involved in urban debate have reported increases in these perceptions and experiences of school.25
C. The UDL Approach Works with Existing School Arrangements to Improve Outcomes for Low-Performing Schools
The UDL approach deploys an evidence-based design firmly grounded in research on effective practices regarding what works in the urban educational settings in which it will continue to be taken to scale. As policymakers work toward comprehensive strategies to decrease dropout rates, they should consider alternative strategies which require modest investment and can be implemented quickly while achieving significant results. Such targeted strategies deserve consideration, as UDLs are a highly effective yet low-cost solution that can be implemented quickly. UDLs complement existing curriculums by extending learning time and fostering academic skills, curiosity, and engagement among underserved urban students.
IV. Educational Decision-Makers Should Increase Support for Urban Debate Leagues and Broaden Access to UDL Programming
Education practitioners and policymakers familiar with the evidence take seriously the notion that expanding access to UDLs is one proven, innovative approach which improves students’ graduation rates. Dr. Briana Mezuk has found important connections between debate participation and educational achievement in her recent research, conducted in conjunction with the University of Michigan, the Consortium on Chicago School Research, and Chicago Public Schools. The best current evidence shows that, in order to effectively increase academic achievements, educators and decision-makers should strive to do the following: (1) broaden access to academically rigorous programs that extend learning opportunities throughout the school year, week, and day; (2) support co-curricular programs that focus on secondary literacy skills and incorporate complex reading materials into instructional time; (3) implement programs that prepare and motivate students to excel at school-based learning; and (4) invest in innovative programmatic approaches backed by empirical evidence. Broadening participation in academic debate for as many urban students as possible is a proven approach to realize these objectives.
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1. 100 school districts educate 24 percent of the nation’s children. Fredricks, L, & Dickson, S., Framing the Problem 1, in EDU. COMM’N OF THE STATES, IMPROVING ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN URBAN DISTRICTS: WHAT STATE POLICYMAKERS CAN DO 1-10 (Edu. Comm’n of the States, Dec. 2003); see also GAROFANO, A. & SABLE, J. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE 100 LARGEST PUBLIC ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOL DISTRICTS IN THE UNITED STATES: 2005–06 (NCES 2008-339) iii (Nat’l Center for Edu. Statistics, Institute of Edu. Sciences, U.S. Dept. of Edu.,2008), available at http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2008/2008339.pdf.
2. BALFANZ, R., AND LEGTERS, N., LOCATING THE DROPOUT CRISIS: WHICH HIGH SCHOOLS PRODUCE THE NATION’S DROPOUTS? WHERE ARE THEY LOCATED? WHO ATTENDS THEM? (CRESPAR Report 70, Sept. 2004), available at http://eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/1b/a3/a0.pdf.
3. 100 school districts educate 24 percent of the nation’s children, including 40 percent of the total students of color and 30 percent of the total low-income students. See Fredricks,& Dickson, supra note 1, at 1; see also GAROFANO & SABLE, supra note 1.
4. Mezuk, B., Urban debate and high school educational outcomes for African American males: The case of the Chicago Debate League, J. OF NEGRO EDU. 290, 296-98 (Oct. 2009).
5. Id at 297-98.
6. Neild, R., & Balfanz, R,, An Extreme Degree of Difficulty: The Educational Demographics of Urban Neighborhood High Schools, J. OF EDU. FOR STUDENTS PLACED AT RISK 123, 126-27 (2006).
7. Tyler, J. & Lofstrom, M., Finishing High School: Alternative Pathways and Dropout Recovery, FUTURE OF CHILDREN 77, 88 (Spring 2009), available at http://eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/44/55/de.pdf.
8. Id.
9. LAIRD, J., DEBELL, M., KIENZL, G., and CHAPMAN, C. DROPOUT RATES IN THE UNITED STATES (NCES 2007-059) 1 (U.S. Dept. of Edu.: National Center for Education Statistics 2007), http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch (last visited Aug. 2009).
10. Kasarda, J., Cities as Places Where People Live and Work: Urban Change and Neighborhood Distress 20, in CISNEROS, H, Ed., INTERWOVEN DESTINIES: CITIES AND THE NATION 81–124 (W.W. Norton 1993).
11. GAROFANO & SABLE, supra note 1.
12. BALFANZ & LEGTERS, supra note 2, at 19-20.
13. Id. at 3-4.
14. Id; see also Neild & Balfanz, supra note 6, at 137-39.
15. Heckman, J. & LaFontaine, P., The Declining American High School Graduation Rate: Evidence, Sources, And Consequences (NBER Reporter: Research Summary 2008 No. 1, 2000), available at http://www.nber.org/reporter/2008number1/heckman.html.
16. Neild & Balfanz, supra note 6, at 123-24. See also Kasarda, supra note 10, at 82 (tracing the development of cities as places of concentrated povery at rates higher than non-city settings).
17. BALFANZ & LEGTERS, supra note 2, at 11.
18. See GAROFANO & SABLE, supra note 1 (listing the 100 largest school districts); www.urbandebate.org (listing the cities in which Urban Debate Leagues have been formed, which track the top fifty of that 100).
19. BALFANZ & LEGTERS, supra note 2, at 31-32 (listing the schools with the lowest promoting power); www.urbandebate.org (listing the cities in which urban debate leagues have been formed, which tracks the top range of the dropout factories).
20. http://urbandebate.org/mission.shtml.
21. Mezuk, supra note 4, at 296-98.
22. Id. at 297-98.
23. LEHR, C., JOHNSON, D., BREMER, C., COSIO, A., & THOMPSON, M., ESSENTIAL TOOLS: INCREASING RATES OF SCHOOL COMPLETION 7-8 (Nat’l Center on Secondary Edu. & Transition 2004), available at http://eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/1b/ab/01.pdf.
24. Id.
25. Sugland, B., Pelea, B., Leon, J., Harris, V., & Peak, G. Learning What You Can, Building From What You Learn: Assessing the Role of the Baltimore Urban Debate League on Academic and Social Development Outcomes of Students. Baltimore, MD: Fund for Educational Excellence (2003).