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Examining Academic Achievement and Engagement Outcomes Of What’s in a Game? Examining Academic Achievement and Engagement Outcomes of Baltimore Urban Debate League Participants by Daniel Shackelford A dissertation submitted to Johns Hopkins University in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Baltimore, Maryland March, 2019 DISSERTATION SHACKELFORD ABSTRACT The following dissertation research contributes to the understanding of whether participation in extracurricular debate influences the academic trajectories of urban youth and is organized as three separate but related journal articles. It reviews the research around Urban Debate Leagues, as well as the literature on academic games in general, and proposes a theoretical argument for their importance in student learning. Despite major advances in the research justification for Urban Debate Leagues, a population largely absent from analysis thus far is elementary and middle school students. This dissertation research fills this gap in the literature by examining observational data from a diverse school district to understand how preadolescent participation in an Urban Debate League is related to a variety of student outcomes. Among a 10-year longitudinal sample of Baltimore City Public School System students, results show that the effect of preadolescent Baltimore Urban Debate League participation for debaters is associated with increases in standardized test scores, a decreased likelihood of chronic absenteeism, and an increased likelihood of attending a selective entrance criteria high school. These results are based on models that mitigate observed selection bias by using inverse probability of treatment weighting to create statistically matched samples for comparison. Sensitivity analysis techniques are also utilized to determine the magnitude of hidden bias that would change inferences about the treatment effects of debate participation on high school outcomes both for preadolescent debaters (those that participate in grades 4-8) as well as for adolescent debaters (those that participate in grades 9-12). By taking these methodological approaches, the analysis in this dissertation advances the empirical evidence for extracurricular ii DISSERTATION SHACKELFORD debate and indicates that particular students may be perfectly positioned to respond positively to its interactive structure and content. To the author’s knowledge, this paper constitutes the first quantitative study on debate for elementary and middle school students, and policy implications for educational interventions that seek to attract low-income youth of color in urban areas and influence their trajectories at earlier stages of student development are discussed. COMMITTEE MEMBERS Advisor and Primary Reader: Stephen Morgan Committee Member and Secondary Reader: Faith Connolly Committee Member and Ph.D. Program Director: Marc Stein Head External Committee Member: Lingxin Hao External Committee Member: Robert Slavin iii DISSERTATION SHACKELFORD To My Detroit Debaters iv DISSERTATION SHACKELFORD ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation research would not have been possible without the support from the Baltimore Education Research Consortium. Through their partnership with the Baltimore City Public School System, they patiently worked with me in gaining access to the administrative data necessary for this project as well as provided me with space within their offices to use throughout analysis. I would also like to acknowledge the National Association for Urban Debate Leagues and the Baltimore Urban Debate League for the data on debate participation. I am especially indebted to Executive Director Coleen Reyes, who graciously accommodated any programmatic requests without reservation, and Dr. Briana Mezuk, whose pioneering studies on debate inspired me and paved the way for this dissertation research. Additionally, I would like to thank each of the members of my dissertation committee for providing me with extensive personal and professional guidance throughout my time at Johns Hopkins University. In particular, I would like to express my deep appreciation and gratitude to Dr. Marc Stein, who encouraged me in my first semester to pursue and carryout this research, and Dr. Faith Connolly, who has overseen each stage of this project and has been nothing but supportive throughout its development and completion. Last but not least, I would like to thank my advisor Dr. Stephen Morgan, who has been an outstanding mentor and friend to me. He has taught me more than I could ever give him credit for here, and it has truly been an honor to study under such a brilliant and compassionate scholar. I would also like to thank my parents, Jess and Bernie Shackelford, and the rest of Team Shackelford for being the best family anyone could ask for. This includes my own former debate coaches, Carol and Mike Shackelford, whom I will be forever grateful for introducing me to the game that changed my life. Finally, I would like to thank my boyfriend Mark Dow for his love and support throughout my Ph.D. program. Thank you for everything. v DISSERTATION SHACKELFORD TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION................................................................................................................................iv ACKNOWELDGMENTS...............................................................................................................v TABLE OF CONTENTS................................................................................................................vi LIST OF TABLES.........................................................................................................................vii LIST OF FIGURES......................................................................................................................viii INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1 I. WHAT’S IN A GAME? AN ARGUMENT FOR URBAN DEBATE LEAGUES Introduction..........................................................................................................................6 The Rise of Urban Debate Leagues.....................................................................................8 Academic Games and Student Learning............................................................................13 Experimental Studies on the Team-Games-Tournament Learning Technique..................19 Conclusion.........................................................................................................................25 References..........................................................................................................................28 II. THE BUDL EFFECT: EXAMINING ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT AND ENGAGEMENT OUTCOMES OF BALTIMORE URBAN DEBATE LEAGUE PARTICIPANTS Introduction........................................................................................................................35 Background........................................................................................................................37 Data....................................................................................................................................41 Methods..............................................................................................................................45 Results................................................................................................................................49 Discussion..........................................................................................................................52 References..........................................................................................................................57 Figures................................................................................................................................63 Tables.................................................................................................................................64 III. THE BALTIMORE URBAN DEBATE LEAGUE AND HIGH SCHOOL OUTCOMES: A SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS Introduction........................................................................................................................71 Background........................................................................................................................73 Present Study.....................................................................................................................76 Methods..............................................................................................................................80 Results................................................................................................................................83 Discussion..........................................................................................................................86 References..........................................................................................................................91 Figures................................................................................................................................95 Tables.................................................................................................................................99 vi DISSERTATION SHACKELFORD LIST OF TABLES Table II.1: Summary of descriptive statistics for debaters and non-debaters................................64 Table II.2: Logit-Coefficients for a propensity score
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