Urban Debate NewsBlast December, 2006 Vol. I, No. 3

Editor’s Note: If you are receiving this NewsBlast you are a supporter of urban debate and the National Association for Urban Debate Leagues. We thank you very much for that support. We plan through this NewsBlast to keep you aware of the highlights of the work of the NAUDL, and of the state of urban debate in the U.S. The NAUDL is the nation’s urban debate national organization entrusted to uphold and expand the urban debate mission; your support makes it possible for the NAUDL to serve thousands of urban youth across the country. We hope that they will help you have a closer appreciation of the value and meaningfulness of your support for us.

We also would welcome and look forward to your feedback to this NewsBlast. Email ([email protected]) or call (312-427-8101) with your views, which will help us refine future editions.

St. Louis and School Districts Reinstate UDL Coach Stipends

About 10 months ago, the NAUDL became extensively involved in revitalizing the St. Louis and Detroit UDLs. The NAUDL had been working closely with these two long- standing Urban Debate Leagues for a couple of years, as they have both encountered mounting challenges to their sustainability several years after the last of their Open Society Institute grants ran out. These Leagues actually faced roughly parallel situations: they have enjoyed solid school district support (though not yet institutionalization) and have had a high degree of teacher and principal investment, but they have not had an external partner – in the form of a collection of civic leaders organized into a UDL Advisory Board or the like – since the years when national OSI funding came to university partners in each city. This void became especially costly last debate season, during tumultuous times at the two school districts as the state governments of both Missouri and Michigan threatened to take control of the troubled school systems and local business leaders brokered the installation of new Superintendents. In both St. Louis and Detroit, UDLs that had been supported by their school districts for at least eight years both experienced the termination of the school-site funding of the UDL by their districts in the fall, 2005.

By February, 2006, the NAUDL became fully mobilized in both cities to fill the gap left by the absence of a local UDL Advisory Board in order to work to reverse the decision made by the new district administrations and reinstate UDL support. In St. Louis the NAUDL had three key meetings with the Director of Curriculum and Instruction and the Executive Director of Secondary Schools. In the end, the St. Louis Public Schools agreed to a significant expansion of St. Louis UDL for the 2006/07 school year and to

332 S. Michigan Ave., Suite 500 • , Illinois 60604 • t. 312-427-8101 • f. 312-427-6130 • www.urbandebate.org restore Coach stipends for Coaches at eight St. Louis Public High Schools for the 2005/06 school year, a total of $42,000 re-invested in the St. Louis UDL. The fulcrum point was in February when the NAUDL led a Coaches’ Seminar in which STLUDL Coaches unanimously agreed to execute the remainder of the UDL program schedule, setting aside the question of funding, so that the district would more likely be persuaded that the UDL continues to thrive, as a result of the dedication of the district’s teachers, and that it was therefore worthy of re-investment. The gambit worked.

In Detroit, the Director of High School Curriculum was told in the fall, 2005, that her UDL budget had also been eliminated by the cost-cutting new administration. Here too the NAUDL became activated and by the early winter had reached an agreement with the district that the outside resources it had helped the Detroit Public Schools access, in the form of a one-year foundation grant, would be matched internally by a commitment to fund six schools’ coaching stipends at $24,000. And in Detroit, Coaches had not been paid stipends in the 2004/05 season, so this was an even more significant turn-around. The Detroit Public Schools also funded school-site costs for eight half-day Tournaments and a year-end banquet in June. The aggregate budget for the Detroit UDL, as funded by the district, was as high by June, 2006, as it had been since the period of OSI funding, some five years previous. But in both cities, the NAUDL is currently actively at work on establishing active and capable local UDL Advisory Boards.

Vashon High School Head Debate Coach The Detroit UDL squad from Henry Ford H.S., Gwendolyn Giles ponders an argument at th e coached by Bernadette Taliaferro-Cain, poses in 2006 STLUDL City Championship. front of a wall of debate trophies – won by debaters from Wayne State University, not (yet) by Ford.

NAUDL Assists UDLs Re-Build, Documenting Significant Participation Gains Over 2005

332 S. Michigan Ave., Suite 500 • Chicago, Illinois 60604 • t. 312-427-8101 • f. 312-427-6130 • www.urbandebate.org

A Detroit UDL debater from Northwestern H.S. The Vashon H.S. debate team prepares and makes a powerful point in her final rebuttal at practices before its 2006 City Championship, on the 2006 Detroit UDL Championship. the date of a site visit from the NAUDL’s Les Lynn

The two UDLs that the NAUDL helped win back school district investment in 2006 also experienced significant student participation increases by June, 2006, compared with the previous season. The Detroit UDL had six schools, six Coaches, and about 80 debaters in 2004/05 and the same number in 2005/06, though the Detroit UDL did increase its number of Tournaments in 2006 by a third, from six to eight.

St. Louis had a very lean year programmatically in 2004/05, in part because of the illness that befell its Coordinator and lead champion Anthony Grobe. It conducted only two Tournaments with four participating schools. In the 2005/06 the STLUDL conducted five full-day Tournaments with six participating high schools and 105 total debaters. This amounted to a 300% increase in UDL participation in St. Louis in 2006, facilitated by direct NAUDL engagement. Additionally, without extensive NAUDL involvement this past season, the Detroit UDL may have been down to a zero programming level – it may have ceased to exist.

NAUDL Works with the DCUDL to Gather Large Group of New Urban Debate Supporters in Nation’s Capital

A portion of the 60-person gathering listening with piqued interest to the NAUDL- DCUDL presentation at NAUDL Board Member Jonathan Massey’s home last month.

332 S. Michigan Ave., Suite 500 • Chicago, Illinois 60604 • t. 312-427-8101 • f. 312-427-6130 • www.urbandebate.org The NAUDL has been conducting a series of Receptions this calendar year in order to enlist and engage additional individual supporters of urban debate, many of whom are former debaters. Last month the NAUDL partnered with the D.C. Urban Debate League to hold a Reception at the home of NAUDL Board Member and well-reputed Supreme Court advocate Jonathan Massey (winner of the National Debate Tournament in 1985) and his wife, Mandy Katz. The NAUDL-DC Reception on November 5th attracted some 60 new supporters of urban debate in the D.C. area, almost all of whom neither the D.C. UDL nor the NAUDL had previously counted as supporters, volunteers, or funders. The event raised an impressive dollar amount; the proceeds were shared with the DCUDL. Perhaps more importantly, though, the DCUDL acquired direct access to prospective Advisory Board members, volunteers, and other supporters in their community. DCUDL Executive Director Colin Touhy was afterward said, “We were very pleased with how the event came out. It was a significant and worthy collaboration between the NAUDL and a local UDL, and I would encourage more of the same in the future. We have already benefited from our follow up with many new prospective supporters of our urban debate work.”

Boston UDL Gains Mayoral Support in Second Year

The Boston Debate League (BDL) is in its second full year and is a UDL that the NAUDL helped bring into being. We have worked closely from the beginning with BDL Administrators Andrew Brokos and Laura Sjoberg. And even earlier: both Andrew and Laura worked under now NAUDL Executive Director Les Lynn for the Chicago Debate League, prior to the formation of the NAUDL.

The Boston Debate League (BDL) has been growing under the successful direction of Andrew and Laura. This year there are six Boston Public High Schools competing in a full five-Tournament UDL schedule, including the two-full-day City Championship at Boston College in March. And BDL schools have begun to compete at regional Tournaments: Manchester H.S., Lexington H.S., and Harvard University. Overall there has been about a 25% participation growth in the Boston UDL this year over last year. This essential growth figure is complemented by reports and observations from university partners in Boston and regional circuit debate coaches that BDL teams are becoming more competitive and that the quality of debate in the League is steadily and markedly rising.

In October the Mayor of Boston, Thomas Menino, and his Chief Aide for Education came out to visit the urban debate team at the Dorchester Education Complex’s Academy for Public Service. The Mayor said that he had been hearing very good things about the debate league recently started in the city schools. Head Coach Locksley Bryan and BDL Advisory Board Member Headmaster Zachary Robbins received the Mayor warmly and treated him to a demonstration debate put on by APS debaters. Afterwards, the Mayor announced his being thoroughly impressed with the young and articulate debaters, though he offered a suggestion for a correction to the AmeriCorps AffirmativeCase – the Department of Homeland Security wouldn’t use Americorps volunteers to help reduce the terrorism risk, Mayor Menino said; Senator John McCain has proposed just that, Andrew Brokos respectfully replied. Coach Bryan gave the Mayor a full set of the NAUDL Core Files, which made the Mayor flinch and offer this humorous aside, “I’d rather have the Argument Summaries, actually, that’s a nice small packet.”

332 S. Michigan Ave., Suite 500 • Chicago, Illinois 60604 • t. 312-427-8101 • f. 312-427-6130 • www.urbandebate.org

Boston Mayor Thomas Menino is handed a copy of the NAUDL Core Files by Academy of Public Service (APS) Head Coach Locksley Bryan.

NAUDL Distributes High Quality Topic Materials to More Than 2,000 Urban Debaters

For the fourth consecutive year the NAUDL has produced its Argument and Research Kit for free distribution and use by all UDL debaters. This year’s national debate topic – debated by all UDL teams as well as all interscholastic non-UDL teams – is “Resolved: The federal government should establish a policy substantially increasing the number of persons serving in one or more of the following national service programs: AmeriCorps, Citizen Corps, Senior Corps, Peace Corps, Learn and Serve America, Armed Forces.” This year’s 700+ page Kit, whose principal author and researcher is NAUDL contractor and Boston UDL Co-Director Andrew Brokos, comprises a full set of Cases and Negative positions in the Core Files, a set of Argument Summaries, a Research Guide, and a Topic Bibliography.

The Core Files and Argument Summaries help UDL teams begin the year debating, right from the start. They are written to be a model of debate brief construction: to be instructional materials that promote clash-intensive and sophisticated debating as early as possible; and to be sophisticated, well-researched files usable all year as part of more- experienced debaters’ larger files. One of the ways that it achieves this instructional objective is to be designed with “clash” (or, as we prefer to call it, “responsiveness”) foremost in mind: all Affirmative and Negative arguments in the Core Files answer each other through several layers of development, leading to the recognition of the structural need to respond to one’s opponent’s arguments in academic debate, and also prompting the next level of development: the need to analyze the text of (both your own and your opponent’s) in order to resolve points of direct clash.

This year’s Core Files include a discussing the Force Transformation policy of former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld; a Case that views the Senior Corps as a vehicle to mitigate the Entitlements crisis that the U.S. faces in the next 20-30 years; and a Case that uses Americorps as a means to ameliorate the “atomization” our society has experienced by building what Harvard Sociologist Richard Putnam has called “Social Capital.” These Cases are bundled with full Case and Off Case Negative positions. The Research Guide and Bibliography will help to scaffold urban debaters to the next level of

332 S. Michigan Ave., Suite 500 • Chicago, Illinois 60604 • t. 312-427-8101 • f. 312-427-6130 • www.urbandebate.org sophistication: devising, researching, assembling, and writing their own Affirmative Cases and Negative positions.

The complete package offered in the NAUDL’s Argument and Research Kit has been recognized by veteran debate professionals as a uniquely valuable contribution to the array of academic debate materials available on the market each year. University of Ohio veteran coach and instructor Steve Mancuso has called the NAUDL Core Files the very best topic materials produced in the summer, and 30-year veteran coach and administrator Brent Farrand, who converted his program at Newark Science into a directorship of one of the nation’s most successful UDLs (the Jersey UDL), has said that he starts all of his urban debaters on the NAUDL Core Files, as they are “the most valuable teaching tool available, simply put.” An estimated two thousand urban debaters are currently using the NAUDL’s Argument and Research Kit, and the kits have been distributed to more than 350 urban public schools in 19 cities this season.

Urban Debate Focus of a Top Non-Fiction Book

Urban Debate Leagues are the focus of a book published by Farrar, Strauss, & Giroux this fall, one that was recently selected by Amazon.com as one of the Top Ten Non- Fiction Books of 2006. Cross-X, by journalist Joe Miller, tells the “turbulent and triumphant story of an inner-city Kansas City school’s debate team” as it took on the National Circuit in 2002/03.

Miller’s book was also named a top book in 2006 by Publisher’s Weekly and the . There is a lot one could say about this rich book, but we think its special features are three-fold. First, it tells a very detailed, believable, and artful verité-style story of the Kansas City Central urban debate team, complete with history of the Kansas City, Missouri public school system and a brief history of educational inequality in this country. The book reflects a great deal of time spent with the debate team and the students of this school. Second, the book gives a central place to the Kansas City Central Coach Jane Rinehart, who comes off not as a chiseled hero but as a rounded professional who happens to be deeply caring and thoroughly dedicated to her students. She’s also a competitive and effective debate coach, whose compass is what she believes are the interests of her kids. Third, the book tells a rather fulsome story of the encounter

332 S. Michigan Ave., Suite 500 • Chicago, Illinois 60604 • t. 312-427-8101 • f. 312-427-6130 • www.urbandebate.org between the National Circuit elite in high school debate and the most competitive of the UDL teams. The story is not a simple David v. Goliath tale often told and re-told in the national media, but a much more nuanced one that reflects histories on both sides: in the suburbs and affluent private schools that have fed the National Circuit in debate and in the inner-city public schools that have – only until the birth of the Urban Debate Network – been devoid of academic debate, along with almost all other after-school and co- curricular academic programs that truly promote excellence.

The golden glue to all of this is that Joe Miller is an excellent prose writer, making the book a very compelling read. Even Elle Magazine called it “rambunctious” and “irresistible.” And the Boston Globe had this to say: "Forget the nerdy reputation that debate has. Instead think of a scenario as exciting as a sports game with high stakes like triumphing over racism, bad politics, and abject poverty...While Cross-X might have started out as a Rocky-like story of a team conquering great odds, it morphs into an important, thoughtful, and provocative look at race and class in America, celebrating the tiny -- and triumphant -- inroad that these kids made in their lives and in the world of debate."

The book has generated a mini-avalanche of media. More than 75 media outlets have written stories on urban debate in its wake, including citywide stories in these UDL cities: Boston, Chicago, Kansas City, , , Minneapolis, Seattle, and St. Louis. And Newsweek was inspired to do a short article on urban youth culture and urban debate, which quotes the NAUDL, and can be found on-line here –

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15560983/site/newsweek/

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 substantiates 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 49.02% of the controls. • Debaters scored 36% higher on the reading post-test than on the pre-test. This improvement is 61% higher than that of controls. • Debaters average 15% higher self-esteem than controls; the longer they debate, the wider the differential.

332 S. Michigan Ave., Suite 500 • Chicago, Illinois 60604 • t. 312-427-8101 • f. 312-427-6130 • www.urbandebate.org • The gross average of debaters' 2006 GPAs is 2.97. The control’s average 2006 GPA is 2.5875. Returning debaters averaged a .13 increase in their GPAs in contrast to returning controls who lost an average of .10 points on a 4.0 scale.

Second Reception in Chicago Nets Significant New Support

As part of the NAUDL’s year-long initiative to further reach out and essay to include additional former debaters and urban education reform caretakers in its growing circle of supporters, the NAUDL held a second reception in Chicago at the home of NAUDL Board Member Mark Koulogeorge. Mark and his wife Karen were supremely gracious and elegant hosts; more than 40 new prospective urban debate supporters attended; the NAUDL raised a notable sum in support of its programming work; and several high-level contacts were established, including with a chief officer from the Joyce Foundation and the President of the Illinois State Board of Education. In the words of student participant and urban debate alumni Carneil Griffin: “These NAUDL events are bi-directionally beneficial. They help the NAUDL and UDLs garner support from communities whose leadership surely wants them to exist and flourish. And the students and UDL teachers and administrators themselves get to tell their stories, which are too little heard by leaders in those same places who are looking for education programs that work. I think I speak for my friend who were at this Reception when I say that I found it very satisfying to express to people what I find valuable in Urban Debate Leagues and in the urban education experience generally.” And Co-Host Patrick Hughes, who invited and brought out the ISBE President, said, “Urban debate is a very worthy cause and one that more and more former debaters will become involved with, once they know about it. These Receptions are one effective way of reaching out.”

Elijah Technologies Teams with the NAUDL as Corporate Sponsor

Elijah Technologies, Ltd., an e-discovery and computer forensics firm ranked in the top twenty nationally in processing capacity, and the NAUDL recently announced the launch of an innovative giving campaign that will contribute substantially to the NAUDL’s mission of increasing opportunity for urban youth to compete in and learn from debate. Elijah Technologies has committed to donate ten percent of its gross profits to the NAUDL for all projects originating from anyone affiliated with the NAUDL or from anyone who expresses an interest in supporting the NAUDL when engaging Elijah Technologies.

“As a former participant in both high school and intercollegiate debate, I understand the tremendous impact that the activity can have in developing critical thinking skills and fostering a strong work ethic,” stated Elijah Technologies president Andrew Reisman. “We are excited about partnering with NAUDL and our clients to help provide urban

332 S. Michigan Ave., Suite 500 • Chicago, Illinois 60604 • t. 312-427-8101 • f. 312-427-6130 • www.urbandebate.org youth with access to debate programs that historically have been available only to schools with greater financial resources.”

About Elijah Technologies: Elijah Technologies specializes in e-discovery processing and computer forensic investigative services. For more information, contact Elijah Technologies at 866-354-5240, http://www.findevidence.com or [email protected].

Urban Debaters Wow Dallas Supporter-Prospects

Last month the NAUDL held its fourth Reception in sixth months, this one in Dallas, at the opulent home of NAUDL supporters Craig and Dawn Budner. About 70 prospective supporters of the NAUDL and a Dallas UDL start-up came to the Budners to mix and mingle, catch up with former debate friends, and to hear a presentation from the NAUDL on how an Urban Debate League might be initiated in Dallas, as early as August, 2007, with their support.

As is typical at these events, the urban debate students are the focal stars of the evening. Since there isn’t yet a UDL in Dallas, the NAUDL imported three urban debaters from Chicago to embody the urban debate mission and story. Susy Rivas is a Junior from Kelvyn Park, an Hispanic young woman who plans to be the first in her family to attend college. During the presentation she spoke movingly about how the UDL expanded her sense of her own possibilities, for college and in life. Claudia Taylor is a Senior at Austin H.S., in a very troubled, gang-ridden section of the city. Debate, Claudia told the guests, instilled in her a belief in her abilities and intelligence that nothing else had, certainly not her family life which has been extremely difficult and burdened by deep problems typical of her neighborhood. And Claudia has found in her relationship with her debate Coach a caring and valuable mentorship and informal guardian. Carneil Griffin is a UDL alumnus, a graduate of Steinmetz H.S., now in his second year at St. Xavier’s College. Carneil credited debate with providing him with the communication skills that led him to become the Youth Coordinator of Chicago for Barack Obama’s Senate campaign, for working in New Hampshire for Howard Dean, for representing urban debaters at the 2004 Alliance for Excellence in Education national conference, for being elected Student Representative on his Local School Council, and for many other “junior achievements” he’s wracked up between 16 and 19 years of age.

At the end of the evening there was a palpable eagerness on the part of the preponderance of guests to see an Urban Debate League initiated in Dallas. “It’s time. We’ve waited in this city for someone else to take the cudgel, but it’s now time,” said St. Mark’s Admissions Director and former Head Debate Coach David Baker. A business associate of Craig’s, attorney John Brada, noted that “the conditions are right in Dallas for this project, and the passion is clearly there. We will do what it takes to get this done.” The students told their stories, and Dallas civic leaders have so far responded.

332 S. Michigan Ave., Suite 500 • Chicago, Illinois 60604 • t. 312-427-8101 • f. 312-427-6130 • www.urbandebate.org

From l. to r.: Carneil Griffin, Claudia Taylor, Craig and Dawn Budner, Susy Rivas, and Les Lynn

St. Louis UDL Conducts Public Debate at Historic Old Courthouse on Constitution Day

The Cleveland Naval Academy Debate Team, coached by Nicole Oelrich, stands on the top step of the front of the Old Courthouse in St. Louis, which is on the Gateway Arch Riverfront.

The U.S. National Park Service asked the NAUDL over the summer if it would be willing to facilitate a Public Debate with St. Louis UDL students for Constitution Week (September 14-18) in the Old Courthouse. The Park Service was moved to reach out to the Urban Debate League because of the historical piquancy of having minority high school students debate public policy issues for the nation in the site of the original Dred Scott decision of 1854, the decision that led to the appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court and the decision the next year by the High Court that for Constitutional purposes, African- Americans were not fully human.

Four students debated about whether the U.S. should close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, or whether it was a useful site of information-gathering and enemy incarceration in the War on Terror. The crowd that gathered for the debate on Constitution Day, September 16th, applauded the young debaters and during the Q & A. period heaped more praise on them as exemplars of the best of the St. Louis Pubic School system than they asked actual pointed questions. It was a fitting display of the skills being taught and learned in the St. Louis UDL for the past eight years.

332 S. Michigan Ave., Suite 500 • Chicago, Illinois 60604 • t. 312-427-8101 • f. 312-427-6130 • www.urbandebate.org