Fall 2010
In UDLs across the country, students are coming home from summer institutes, shuffling their camp files one more time, getting ready for the first practices of the season. And here at the office of the NAUDL, I am sitting down behind a new desk, preparing to take on my new role as Executive Director. After practicing law for thirty-three years, I have returned to my roots. I spent seven years in high school and college debate and during that time I built the foundation for a successful legal career. Now I look forward to helping more students build the foundation for their future careers.
As I step into my new role, I will be leading an organization with many remarkable accomplishments. You will read about some of them in this NewsBlast. In June the same team that won the Urban Debate National Championship also won the National Forensic League National Tournament – the first UDL team ever to do so. In July our national champions and top speakers visited with the President in the Oval Office and met with senators and members of Congress. As I watched our champions in action, I was proud to be part of the urban debate movement.
If we can bring the power of urban debate to more students, the future will be bright.
Sincerely,
Linda L. Listrom
Executive Director, NAUDL
Urban Debate goes to the White House
By now, you may have heard about urban debate being invited all the way to the White House. Now hear directly from the students. During the visit, the students talked with the President about debate and their futures.
Misael Gonzalez, Kevin Hirn, Michael Barlow, and Shagun Kukreja each spoke about the impact of the visit, their reactions to D.C., and their impressions after meeting so many national leaders who are former debaters.
Read what the students had to say >>
Raising Urban Debate’s Profile with Decision Makers
During the trip to Washington, D.C., the students and representatives from the NAUDL and UDLs in Chicago, Jersey, and Atlanta also met with a number of policymakers to raise the profile of urban debate. The group met Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, National Economic Council Director Larry Summers, and over 10 legislators, including Senator Dick Durbin and Representatives Mike Quigley, Jan Schakowsky, Bobby Rush, and Danny Davis from Illinois; Senator George LeMieux of Florida; and Senator (Ret.) Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey. They also met Robert Rivkin, General Counsel of the Department of Transportation, and Carolyn Webb de Macias, who is Chief of Staff in the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education in the Department of Education.
In the meetings, NAUDL and UDL staff shared their visions of how urban debate may fit within national policy priorities, while students offered their reflections on the importance of providing debate opportunities to more students.
View photos with each leader as well as the President >>
The Latest Research on Urban Debate and Academic Achievement
On August 14, Dr. Briana Mezuk presented the latest research on the Chicago Debate League before an audience at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association. She further confirmed her finding that participating in urban debate significantly improves students’ scores on English and reading tests.
Debate engages students in the types of advanced literacy skills emphasized by the Common Core State Standards: reading complex informational texts and constructing arguments based on evidence. Now that the standards have been adopted by 35 states, covering 75 percent of the country’s student population, it’s more important than ever that schools and school systems think about ways to teach these skills. Urban Debate Leagues are a field-tested approach that works.
You can view a slideshow with the results of the latest research on how participating in urban debate can improve academic achievement.
Methodologically, the new research improves on previous studies by using propensity score matching, a statistical approach to better account for self-selection into debate. This approach better estimates the true causal effect of debate on achievement, showing more conclusively than ever that debate provides immense benefits.
View the slideshow >>
Alumna Spotlight
Mya Whitaker, currently a junior at San Francisco State University, is an alumna of the Bay Area Urban Debate League. In an interview with the NAUDL, Mya told us about the impact urban debate has had on her life and college career.
Mya first encountered the activity in a debate class her senior year of high school. At first she joined because she figured it would be an easy A, but she soon found out it would be more challenging than she thought: the course required that every student participate in at least one tournament. As required, Mya attended her first tournament—where she took top speaker honors! After that, she was hooked.
No longer in it just for the grade, Mya kept going to tournaments. Her short career in debate culminated with the honor of qualifying for the National Urban Debate Championship.
As she begins her next year of college, Mya is considering either chemistry or journalism and broadcasting for her major and future career. For her, journalism would allow her to continue to use the power of her words to better the lives of other people. She credits debate for showing her just how powerful well-researched words and arguments can be in shaping the opinions of others, both within the debate round and in the rest of the community.
But that’s not all. If you had asked Mya even a year ago where she would be today, she says the answer might not have included college. “If not for debate,” Mya said, “I might not have come back for my sophomore year [of college].”
Mya credits debate for the stream of positive attention she received for her success in a challenging academic activity. Her teachers and peers were impressed by her devotion to a demanding activity like debate, and by the success that it helped her cultivate in her life.
Her parting advice: “Try it before you say no. I said no. They will accept you.”
Kick Off the 2010-2011 Topic with the Argument and Research Kit
The 2010-2011 Policy Debate Resolution poses a timely challenge to debaters to re-evaluate the United States military and/or police presence in six countries. The countries, Japan, Kuwait, Afghanistan, Iraq, South Korea and Turkey, all have distinct historical and strategic relationships with the United States. The countries also represent different levels of strategic importance, current engagement, and future security needs. Such a diverse group of countries requires debaters to advocate a foreign policy that benefits the United States, the strategic relationship, and other allies impacted by these relationships. As a result, this year’s debates will expose debaters to timely security issues confronting the United States and its allies and the increasing interconnectivity of the world through foreign policy.
Coaches and Debaters: Get your evidence for the year with the NAUDL’s Argument and Research Kit >>
News around the network
Bay Area: The Bay Area Urban Debate League is excited to announce that Andrea Nobles has taken the helm as Executive Director and that Ta'Sheema Taylor has join BAUDL as Program Director. Andrea most recently served as the Director of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Oratorical Fest, which grew under her leadership to involve over 5,000 student participants. Ta'Sheema is a recent graduate of the University of California, Davis, where she double-majored in African and African-American Studies and Biological Systems Engineering and, among other things, was awarded the Gold Community Service Award for leadership and service and was selected as Woman of the Year by Kappa Alpha Psi. Ta'Sheema is also an alum of BAUDL. BAUDL is brimming with optimism and enthusiasm with these two wonderful additions.
Houston: The Houston Urban Debate league got off to an early start this year with its annual summer debate institute. This year, the HUDL’s institute hosted a record number of students. After a week spent studying this year’s resolution, the institute concluded with a tournament to kick off another year of intense competition in Houston’s UDL. At the institute, 186 students from 27 schools listened to a variety of speakers including Daoud Yaqub, former assistant to Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, who discussed life in Afghanistan. The students also met with representatives from the University of Houston to discuss college options. Read more about the HUDL institute here.
Denver: When U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor spoke at the University of Denver, three DUDL students and alumni were invited to ask questions. Justice Sotomayor addressed an audience of students, law school faculty, and community members during the event. She spoke about the importance of diversity in the legal profession and about her life experiences. The event was hosted by the Sturm College of Law and the Colorado Campaign for Inclusive Excellence (CCIE). View the video and transcripts of debaters' questions here.
Jersey: In New Jersey, the 2010 Frost Valley/JUDL Debate Camp was a wild success. Attendance nearly doubled from the institute's first year, with 47 debaters and 15 staff in attendance. For eight days, students practiced argumentative skills and analyzed the new resolution. The agenda included an SAT preparation workshop, topic lectures and discussions, and a module series focused on specific issues like hegemony, U.S. military and civilian government relations, and a critique of capitalism and imperialism. The instructional staff was composed of members of the Rutgers debate team along with four Newark teacher-coaches.
Debate in the News
- Slate - Can Debate Save the World, or Does It Just Help You Get Into a Better College?
- Emory Report - Urban Debate Leaders Visit White House
- Rutgers - Champion Newark Student Debater, Rutgers University Vice Chancellor Marcia Brown Meet President Obama in The Oval Office
- Talk Up APS - Grady Speech/Debate Champ Michael Barlow Meets President Obama
- Newark Star-Ledger - There's No Debating the Value of Academic Debating
- Chicago Tonight - The 2010 Urban Debate National Champions from Whitney Young High School
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