Academics
Tournament debating impacts traditional academics in several ways. First, it
teaches students skills (reflection, research, organization, analysis, etc.)
that serve them well in the classroom. Second, debate shows young people,
especially alienated and disenfranchised young people, the visceral and
undeniable excitement of learning, finding one's voice, and the power these
provide. Tournament debating also provides many students a concrete reason to
attend college: intercollegiate debate.
A recent (August 2011) article in the San Francisco
Chronicle reports that "the correlation between participation in debate
and higher test scores, grades and graduation rates appears to be strong,
according to the National Association of Urban Debate Leagues.” (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/08/11/MNII1KJV69.DTL)
The self-report data of Atlanta urban middle school urban
debaters show a statistically significant increase in GPA among UDL
participants.(http://www.urbandebate.org/literature.shtml) .
The Chicago Debate League collected data on more than 100
students representing all four years in school from five high for the 1997-98
academic year.During the study period,
urban debaters improved their grades by 7.6% (average GPA went from 3.17 to
3.41), compared to a comparison group whose grades fell 1.3% (average GPA went
from 2.98 to 2.94). “A peer-reviewed study of the Chicago Debate League suggests that African American male students raised their GPAs by 50% of a letter grade and were 70% more likely to graduate from high school than non-debating peers” (http://www.urbandebate.org/newcomers.shtml). Dr. Briana Merzuk of Virginia Commonwealth University and a research team at the University of Michigan examined 10 years of Urban Debate League data from Chicago (2009) and reported that African American male students who participated in interscholastic debate were 70 percent more likely to graduate from high school and three times less likely to drop out. While many students have peers who will not graduate from high school, “more than 75% of urban debaters go to four-year colleges. Debate gives students the tools to succeed in college” (http://www.urbandebate.org/value.shtml).