Reading Researchers
from the Center for Applied Research
(2003) found that 44.2% of debaters in the Baltimore Urban Debate League
reported increased reading comprehension.
Using
the Scholastic Reading inventory and a pre-test/post-test format, a “nationwide
educational study conducted by Dr. Linda M. Collier [2004] demonstrated that
debate had a dramatic impact on students’ reading scores. Collier compared 209
debaters and 212 non-debaters at 27 urban high schools in New York, Chicago,
Kansas City, St. Louis and Seattle. She administered a standardized reading
test designed to meet the requirements of the No Child Left Behind legislation at the beginning and the end of a
single school year. She concluded, ‘The reading scores of all students improved
over the school year, but debaters improved by 25% more than non-debaters.’” (http://communication.gsu.edu/ndp/benefits.htm).
Using
the same inventory, the Minnesota urban debate league study (2005) showed that
debaters scored 36% higher on the reading post-test than on the pre-test. This
improvement is 61% greater than improvements among the comparison group (http://www.urbandebate.org/literature.shtml).
“The
results of the first year of the Milwaukee Debate League are equally dramatic.
On average, students participating in the league improved by a year and a half
against national norms related to reading rate, accuracy, fluency and
comprehension. The greatest improvements were in accuracy and comprehension’” (http://communication.gsu.edu/ndp/benefits.htm).
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 50 percent more likely to reach the
ACT college-readiness benchmark for English than non-debaters.“Compared to their non-debating peers,
African American male debaters were 70% more likely to reach the ACT College
Ready benchmark in Reading and twice as likely to reach the College Ready
benchmark in English.”(http://www.urbandebate.org/newcomers.shtml)