Urban debate got some national attention yesterday thanks to an op-ed piece authored by former debater Erwin Chemerinsky for USA Today:
“Research shows that participation in organized debate leagues improves literacy scores by 25% and grade point averages by 8%-10%. And while many urban debaters come from schools where most students do not go to college or receive a high school diploma, almost 100% of urban debaters graduate from high school and more than three-quarters go to college.
My own career is a testament to the benefits of debate. I grew up in a working-class family on the south side of Chicago. Neither of my parents attended college. During my first week of high school in September 1967, I wandered into the initial meeting of the debate team. It captured my interest and for the next eight years, all four years of both high school and college, interscholastic debate was at the center of my education and my life.”