First Chase Urban Debate National Champion Crowned
Lane Tech High School, from the host city of Chicago, won the first Chase Urban Debate National Championship. The championship was hosted by the NAUDL recently at the Northwestern University downtown campus. More>>
Winner of the Top Speaker Award
Central High School Senior Sean Easterwood of Kansas City won the Top Speaker award at the first Chase Urban Debate National Championship. In the process he earned a $2,500 scholarship that he will use to attend the University of Missouri-Kansas City in the fall. The scholarship was provided through the generosity of Holland & Knight LLP. More>>
Melissa Maxcy Wade Named Urban Debate Champion
Melissa Maxcy Wade, M.A., M.T.S., Th.M., has been the Director of Forensics at Emory University since 1972, and is a faculty member in the Division of Educational Studies. She received Emory’s highest faculty honor, the Thomas Jefferson Award, in 2007. More>>
Diana Dunker Named Urban Debate Alumnus of the Year
Diana Dunker debated for Science High School of Newark from 1985-89 during a time when very few urban school debaters competed on the high school national circuit. During her varsity years she and her partner were invited to numerous national round robins and qualified twice for the NFL National Tournament as well as the Tournament of Champions. More>>
Scott Deatherage named Executive Director of the National Association for Urban Debate Leagues
The Board of Directors of the National Association for Urban Debate Leagues (NAUDL) has named Dr. Larry Scott Deatherage as its Executive Director. Dr. Deatherage’s appointment concludes a four month nationwide search across the for profit business sector as well as the fields of non-profit administration, public education, and academic debate. More>>
A Letter from the NAUDL Board Chair…
Dear Friends of the NAUDL,
Thanks to you and your support, 2007 has been quite a year.
2008 promises to be even more remarkable. Throughout this newsletter
you will see a number of exciting and promising ventures that we have
either already undertaken or that we will pursue in the coming year.
More>>
The Great Debaters
The
NAUDL is joining forces with The Weinstein Company in cross-promotional
efforts concerning a new film scheduled for release this holiday season
called The Great Debaters. The film has already been nominated
for a Golden Globe award in the category “Best Picture, Drama.” More>>
UDL Success in “Big D”
Launched
this past fall, the newest UDL in the nation is in Dallas, Texas.
The NAUDL is happy to report that the league is off to a fantastic start.
Debate programs were started and are active in 11 Dallas Independent
School District (Dallas ISD) high schools. Five coach and student
seminars have been conducted. Two tournaments have been completed,
with another scheduled in December. And, the number of participating
students doubled from the first tournament to the second. More>>
NAUDL Announces First Annual Chase Urban Debate National Championship
We
are thrilled to announce that the NAUDL will host the first annual Chase
Urban Debate National Championship in Chicago, Illinois, on April 3-6,
2008. The Championship will bring together approximately 70 outstanding
high school students, accomplished coaches, and dedicated administrators
from nearly 20 Urban Debate Leagues around the country for a weekend
of competition, conferencing, and community. More>>
Minneapolis UDL Data Substantiates Big Boost in Academic Achievement from Debate
The
principal researcher for the University of Missouri Kansas City study
in 2004 on Urban Debate Leagues, Professor Linda Collier, produced a
follow-up examination of the specific data collected in Minneapolis-St.
Paul. At the request of UDL Administrator Karon Garen, Professor Collier
assembled this data, analyzed it, and then produced a set of results
generated by the Twin Cities UDL. The data from Minneapolis-St. Paul
substantiate the League’s position that its UDL significantly
boosts academic achievement among participants. Highlights from Professor
Collier’s findings include:
• 80% of debaters reported no attendance problems compared to
49% of the control students.
• Debaters scored 36% higher on the reading post-test than on
the pre-test. This improvement is 61% higher than that of control students.
• Debaters average 15% higher self-esteem than control students;
the longer they debate, the wider the differential.
• The gross average of debaters' 2006 GPAs is 2.97. The control
student's average 2006 GPA is 2.5875. Returning debaters averaged a
.13 increase in their GPAs in contrast to returning control students
who lost an average of .10 points on a 4.0 scale.
