Our Results

Debate has a profound effect on the lives of our youth and can change the academic and life outcomes of participating students, as demonstrated in both local and national data, research reports and media. Virtually every study ever conducted on the outcome of debate and advocacy training concludes that such activities have benefits that transcend the laboratory of high school or intercollegiate debate and reach beyond into society. A few of the more recurrent findings in literature suggest:

  • Debate improves educational performance. Students report that debate provides them with "a heightened capacity to hang in and struggle - often in the face of disappointment and defeat." Participation in debate positively correlates with significant gains in cumulative grade point averages and higher critical thinking scores.
  • Debate reduces violence. Important new research is demonstrating that a significant correlation exists between the increased verbal skills associated with debate participation and decreased physical violence toward both peers and domestic relations.
  • Debate enhances social development. Students report that they feel more confident, more self-assured, and more aware of their strengths and assets through participation in debate. Studies in the field suggest that debate "gives students better social skills and causes them to place more value on their social relationships."
  • Debate improves schools and communities. Competitive debate programs lead to increased demands for AP classes in inner city schools. Debate Across the Curriculum programs, designed to use debate as an instructional method across a variety of academic disciplines, offer teachers interactive curricular materials and new sources of professional development, while spreading many of the benefits of competitive debate to new students. Urban debaters tend to devote their skills to improving the communities they live in.
  • Debate strengthens communication skills. Students who participate in debate report that they are more inclined to speak up and express their point of view because they feel they have something useful to say and because they feel more articulate in saying it. Studies examining debaters in comparison to their peers indicate that debaters are "significantly better at employing the three communication skills (analysis, delivery, and organization)."
  • Debate enhances knowledge of important social issues. Students enthusiastically credit debate with their awareness of and interest in issues involving society at large. Studies of debate outcomes describe the experience as "an introduction to the social sciences" and conclude "it is also a way to reconnect students to public life if they have been overcome by feelings of alienation."
  • Recent topics researched and discussed by high school debaters for an entire year include: national education reform, U.S. policy on weapons of mass destruction, United Nations peacekeeping operations, and federal policy toward environmental preservation.
  • Debate prepares fundamental leadership skills. Studies conducted in the professional fields of governmental service, the law, and educational administration conclude that debate improves performance in the workplace.

 

According to a local study:

 

  • BUDL students voluntarily receive up to 500 additional hours of academic instruction each year through after-school practices in their schools, workshops, weekend tournaments and community-based debate activities
  • BUDL students, parents and teacher-coaches report that participation in BUDL leads to a rapid increase in self esteem, increase in attention to school and achievement, increase in attendance rates and greater engagement in their non debate classes.
  • BUDL participants see themselves as college material and aim high. Ninety percent of BUDL's graduates since 2004 have graduated on time and were accepted into colleges across the nation, many receiving full or partial debate scholarships.

(Source: "Assessing the Role of the Baltimore Urban Debate League on Academic and Social Development Outcomes of Students" conducted by the Center for Applied Research and Technology Assistance in 2002)

National studies indicate results are consistent for urban debaters across the country:

 

  • Urban debate league students have a 25% higher rate of increase on annual literacy assessment measures than their non debating peers.
  • Debaters are three times less likely to engage in high risk behaviors.
  • Debaters are almost twice as likely to go on to college and to pursue college immediately after high school.
  • Debate students showed greater increases in GPA and over one year when compared to their non debating peers.

(Source: "Argument for Success: A Study of Academic Debate in the Urban High schools of Chicago, Kansas City, New York, St. Louis and Seattle," Linda M. Collier, JD. University of Missouri, 2004)

Accolades

The success of the Baltimore Urban Debate League has garnered substantial local and national media attention for the League and for the Baltimore City Public School System over the past nine years. Highlights include:

  • A 10-page feature article in the Washington Post Magazine in August 2007.
  • The National "Coming Up Taller Award" presented at the White House by the first lady and the President's Committee on Arts and Humanities in fall of 2006
  • A CBS 60 Minutes segment featuring the work of the Baltimore Urban Debate League Walbrook High School in June 2003
  • US News and World Report Feature Story on Urban Debate with central focus on Baltimore's League, June 2002
  • A $5,000 B'MORE Fund Award, given annually to unsung heroes within the nonprofit community making a major impact on this city, 2005