MILWAUKEE DEBATE LEAGUE NEWS

Please take a few minutes and watch this short documentary about the Milwaukee Debate League. You'll be glad you did.

In 2006, the Einhorn Charitable Family Trust funded the National Debate Project to create a three-year pilot Milwaukee Debate League (MDL). In the first year, more than two hundred students from twelve high schools participated. The selected schools were quite diverse, reflecting the school choice movement currently being implemented in Milwaukee. They ranged from large (several thousand students) to small (100-200), public to private, religious to secular, and charter to traditional public schools. The schools also spanned the geographic area of Milwaukee and its surrounding suburbs. Each of the selected schools serve populations of at least 50% free or reduced school lunch recipients or have school mandates for admitting socio-economically challenged populations. Marquette University serves as the local anchor for the Milwaukee Debate League.

The results of the first year were impressive. The reading scores of MDL participants exceeded annual progress norms nationwide in rate, accuracy, fluency, and comprehension. After one year in the program, participants accuracy and comprehension scores improved by 1 1/2 grade levels according to national norms established by the Gray Oral Reading Test.

Each participating school in the MDL provides four to six hours of debate training to students throughout the academic year. Some of the schools meet that requirement by offering courses within their academic curricula, others offer after-school programming, and the remainder offer a combination of the two. Monthly Einhorn Debate Tournaments are held on the Marquette University campus to provide the students an opportunity to compete in interscholastic debae competitions. Students also attend a two-week intensive summer program at Marquette to introduce new teachers and students to the fundamentals of debate.

In year two, eight additional high schools joined the league. In the final year of the pilot program, both middle and high schools will be eligible to participate. In addition to their reading levels, school attendance, suspension/disciplinary referrals, grade point averages, and level of communication apprenhension are being monitored over the first three years of the program.