Urban debate league
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An urban debate league (UDL) is a group of high school policy debate teams from urban high schools in the United States. Because each school may have a number of individual teams, there can be a very large number of students who have participated in an urban debate league. Usually, UDL's are located in large cities throughout the US, and work with predominantly minority students.
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[edit] History
[edit] Early years
There were various initiatives surrounding debate in urban areas in the early 1980s in Atlanta, Detroit, and Philadelphia.
Philadelphia began teaching debate to students in impoverished communities 1982 then expanded their efforts in 1985. The Detroit Public Debate League began in 1984 as an after-school partnership between the Detroit Gifted and Talented Program and Wayne State University Director of Debate George Ziegelmueller.[1] In Atlanta, the UDL was born as a graduate school research paper in 1983 that explored the hypothesis that debate might be a tool to level the playing field in education, and that words might be used to reduce violence in America’s cities. The initial Atlanta UDL was formed as a partnership between the Barkley Forum of Emory University and the Atlanta Public Schools. The concept took root and flourished, and by 1985, it was a fully established league.[2]
Early program support for urban debate initiatives was granted through the National Forensics League and Phillips Petroleum by the early 1990s. Significant seed funding was then provided by the Open Society Institute in the Spring of 1997 to take the initiative national, and OSI chose the Atlanta Urban Debate League model as the template they wanted to model in other cities.[3] As a result, Atlanta has traditionally been thought to be the basis for the urban debate network.
[edit] The Open Society Institute and New Leagues
The most crucial component in making the Urban Debate League a national education reform movement was seed funding from George Soros’ Open Society Institute. In the Spring of 1997, OSI launched its High School Debate Grantmaking Program, the purpose of which was to support initiatives that seek to institutionalize competitive debate opportunities in high schools in traditionally underserved communities. OSI already had a tradition of supporting high school debate through its network of foundations in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, where OSI had demonstrated that participation in debate fostered the skills that empower young people to actively participate as citizens of open society.[4]
By 1998, OSI had provided seed funding for the Urban Debate League models in Atlanta, Detroit, Tuscaloosa, and Chicago. They continued to provide funding for the establishment of UDLs across the country until around 2002, and their contributions had enabled the launch of UDLs in 16 cities, including Los Angeles, Baltimore, Kansas City, Newark, Washington DC, and Providence[5].
The contributions of OSI and other funders has led multiple other donors to bring to fruition Urban Debate Leagues in their own cities. For instance, Friends of the Miami Dade Urban Debate League--a group of individuals, corporations, and foundations--established an Urban Debate League in Miami in 2005.[6] Also, the Einhorn Charitable Trust provided funding to found a UDL in Milwaukee in 2006.[7] All over the country, funders, universities, and individuals who are called to make a difference in their communities are partnering to bring the benefits of debate to disenfranchised youth.
[edit] UDLs today
With the growth of Urban Debate Leagues across the country, there are several national entities that are committed to reaching as many students as possible with the power of debate. In 2002, the National Association of Urban Debate Leagues was created to provide national leadership of the Urban Debate Network. [8]
The National Debate Project (NDP)--a consortium of Emory University, Georgia State University, Tennessee State University, Clark Atlanta University, and New York University--works in the field of education reform, and its mission is to promote debate as a tool for empowering urban and rural youth living in America’s most socio-economically challenged communities.[9] In 2003, urban debate moved into national prominence with an article in US News & World Report and a feature story on 60 Minutes about the Baltimore Urban Debate League. The sudden attention and the reduction of OSI support led to the formation of the National Debate Project in Atlanta and domestic activities by the International Debate Education Association (IDEA)[10]. At about this time Urban Debate Leagues began to develop their connections with the growing after-school programs movement: in 2004 and 2005 the NAUDL was invited to make presentations at the National Institute for Out of School Time[11] and the Alliance for Excellent Education annual conferences[12].
In 2005, the Associated Leaders of Urban Debate (ALOUD) was formed, led by New York University (NYU) President John Sexton, Pitney Bowes CEO Michael Critelli. It is estimated that 34,000 at-risk youth have participated in UDL programs, of which more than 75% have gone on to college. Over 100 colleges and universities now recruit intercollegiate debaters in cities with UDLs offering millions in scholarship support. Stuart Singer, Esq., President Sexton and Will Baker, Executive Director of ALOUD are all prominent former debaters/debate coaches as well as prominent members of the community at large.[13]
Major press coverage of the Urban Debate League movement and NDP projects has been featured in the New York Times, U.S. News and World Report, Seattle Times, Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Teacher Magazine, Chronicle for Higher Education, Christian Science Monitor, the web site for the White House, and on the CBS show 60 Minutes. [14]
[edit] Funding
The goal of the OSI's Urban Debate Program was to offer initial support to fund debate programs within urban communities, develop local stakeholders (e.g., university partners, community funders and/or school system support) and then to exit the equation. The concept was once local actors see the value of the program, sustaining investment in debate would become easier.
Today, Urban Debate Leagues are funded primarily by one of three local institutions: urban public school systems, non-profit organizations dedicated to establishing a local UDL, or university debate programs engaged in community outreach.
[edit] How it works
Most UDLs function in their own unique way, and use different teaching methods to familiarize urban students with the format and application of policy debate. Most urban debate leagues recruit and train urban educators as coaches, though many also use university debaters or former debaters within the community to serve as assistant coaches. While all UDLs attempt to recruit volunteer support (tournament judges, tournament "tab room" coordinators, lecturers at debate workshops for students, etc.), certain core costs of a UDL must be funded in order for the program to be sustainable: coach stipends, debate materials, and transportation to tournaments.
Local debate programs have spawned other methods to integrate debate into their communities. Urban debate has expanded to include debate across the curriculum (a classroom learning tool), public debates (partnering with community-based organizations), debates in prisons, and middle school competitions. Urban debate is now about even more than starting high school policy debate leagues.
UDLs have demonstrated a very high level of cost-effectiveness averaging less than $650 per student for a year's involvement in a program that researchers and media observers have widely recognized as unusually intensive in its academic focus, relative to other after-school programs.
[edit] Current UDLs and associations
[edit] External links
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