Claremont's Public Debate Program Successful and Growing Rapidly

Claremont McKenna College (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Lindsey Bing of Portland State University asked about outreach to high schools. John Meany of the Claremont Colleges responded on behalf of the Public Debate Program which he directs. I think many people should be interested in this program as it is hugely successful and growing rapidly. 

-Editor

I direct a secondary school educational outreach program, the Public Debate
Program (PDP). It is a volunteer-based supplement to the Claremont Colleges
Debate Union with national and international debate programming. The Middle
School Public Debate Program (MSPDP) and High School Public Debate Program
(HSPDP) are arguably the largest and fastest growing debate network in the
world, with more than 100,000 participants in 20 countries for 2013-14
operations and an on-going expansion plan to add 60,000 teachers and
students within the next 3 years. I would be happy to have you and Portland
State involved in the program. That is also the case for anyone else reading
this and interested in participating.

The PDP uses a proprietary debate format designed to maximize learning
outcomes for secondary school students. (For a number of reasons, BP and
many other debate formats are not appropriate for secondary school
students). The PDP was produced in collaboration with university graduate
education faculty, school district administrators, and middle school and
high school teachers. It applies best practices for teachers and students ­
training is appropriate for skills integration in the classroom and
competitive debating. It is standards-based and programming is rigorously
evaluated. There is more than a decade of practical experience in
extraordinarily diverse educational settings (many of the wealthiest and
poorest communities in the world successfully participate). For teachers,
there are textbooks, teacher guides, lesson plans and other curricular
material, and sample DVDs.

It is possible to establish middle school and high school leagues in your
area. The PDP is organized to offer low cost and sustainable programming.
For example, for annual dues of only a few hundred dollars, a school is able
to register and participate in a year's worth of workshops and tournament
debating for as many students as would like to debate. This is an
extraordinarily small fraction of the cost of participation in most other
speech and debate programs. There are regional and national championship
tournaments and students may participate in ancillary public debate, essay
contest, and PDP leadership activities. Teachers can use some of the debate
materials to begin participation in other Debate Union outreach programs,
including photojournalism and law initiatives, expanding extracurricular
opportunities at their schools.

There are some unique features of the PDP format that appeal to both new and
experienced debate participants:

- Debates are fast-paced and dynamic, integrating POIs and argumentative
heckling 

- There is rigorous topic selection from multiple disciplines (e.g., there
are many more debates involving science, art, literature, history ­ school
curricular issues ­ than one might be used to from college and other
secondary school formats)

- All judges are certified to be eligible for tournament competitions
(rather than inhibiting judging, serious certification increases judging ­ I
will certify more than 400 judges for league competitions in Southern
California alone this year)

- There is a skills-based performance rubric for assessing students ­ it is
comprehensive and detailed

- There is required full disclosure of the debate outcome, including
individual speaker points, as well as an explanation of the outcome and
verbal constructive feedback and a detailed written ballot at the conclusion
of each debate

­ The PDP trains and certifies teachers and community volunteers to
administer leagues, certify judges, and administer tournaments. It is
designed to provide professional opportunities for others ­ it does not
require a cadre of debate experts to maintain league operations (e.g, I have
trained middle school and high school students to run the software and
responsibly organize tournament tabulation ­ this is professional and
valuable community service work for students and can be an exceptional
detail in student applications for internships, college, and work)

Steve Johnson has established a successful MSPDP program in Anchorage. He
may have some outstanding advice about using debate and campus resources to
help initiate a program.

I am more than happy to assist you in creating debate opportunities in
Portland (there are Oregon schools participating in Northern California PDP
leagues and I have current plans to develop leagues in Southern Oregon.
There is also a league in Seattle that started last year ­ it might even be
possible to quickly establish an opportunity for a low-cost regional
championship). Just send me an email if you are interested ­ have an
efficient method for establishing new school and league programming.

I also applaud your effort to expand BP debating for college students,
particularly underserved or excluded populations. I have two recommendations
(have made both to this email list previously and will do so again soon).
First, identify one school and help them get a BP debate program underway.
If all participating BP schools did this each year, then WUDC-format
debating would certainly expand enormously in a short time (e.g., Reed used
to debate ­ do not know if they still participate in any intercollegiate
debating now but might be a good choice because of their previous
intercollegiate debating, also PCC). Second, if you are responsible for
administering a tournament or can influence tournament administration and
the tournament has a CA/DCA team (although that is, quite obviously, not
necessary to manage a tournament), then make sure that only women are
included as CA or as part of the adjudication team. If women have tournament
leadership positions, more women might find tournament administration,
topics, procedures, judging, and behavior more inclusive.

Best,

John

John Meany
Director of Forensics
Claremont Colleges Debate Union
Claremont McKenna College
500 East Ninth Street
Claremont, CA 91711-6400
909.607.2667 TEL
909.621.8249 FAX
john.meany@cmc.edu