2022 April/May Rostrum

National Institute in Forensics

We invite you to join us next summer for the 29th Annual UT National Institute in Forensics. The UTNIF continues to be one of the largest and most accomplished summer forensic programs in the country. Just a few reasons why our students keep coming back year after year: incomparable education, superior resources, unmatched faculty, reasonable rates, tremendous alumni, and best of all—summer in Austin, Texas, as we return to full live instruction!

www.utspeech.net

www.utdebatecamp.com

Success is a product of excellent and immensely talented students, incredibly hard working coaches, supportive parents and schools, and exceptional amounts of time that include investment in summer opportunities. It is that understanding that makes UTNIF one of the largest comprehensive institutes in the country year after year, and why we have assembled some of the brightest forensic minds in the nation for our program. It is also that educational philosophy that has enabled alumni of our summer programs to succeed at every level, from high school and well into collegiate forensic competition.

Passion… Elegance… Excellence

Summer 2022 program dates:

Note: All dates and staff listings subject to continuing contract agreements. For current pricing and program descriptions, please see our websites.

CX Summer Survivors Supersession: June 23-July 30

CX Skills first session & Sophomore Select: June 23-July 10

CX Skills second session: July 13-July 30

Speech Events: June 22-July 6 (extension through July 9)

PF: June 22-July 6

LD: July 17-July 30

CX Novice: July 17-July 23 (commuter only)

UTNIF

Dept. of Communication Studies

1 University Station

Mail Code A1105

Austin, Texas 78712-1105

Contact Info:

Debate - 512-471-1918

brendon.bankey@austin.utexas.edu

Speech - 512-471-1957

mrcox@austin.utexas.edu

Letter from the Publisher Board of Directors

In this issue, we share ideas to help you gear up for next year. As you build your schedule, plan your curriculum, set your budget, and prep for another season, we hope you find useful tools in these pages. Find fundraising strategies to support your team ranging from corporate grants to a haunted house. Learn how to leverage the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Fund to increase or secure a budget for the coming school year. Explore how to overcome team or school size challenges by co-hosting a tournament with another school in your area. Skip recreating the wheel and take a spin through our ready-made lesson plans and resources.

Our cover story in this issue explores the factors that influence the stability of a speech and debate program. We share the top challenges programs face, what influences administrator support, and the impact of having a class, competing outside of school, and funding on the longevity of programs. Learn more beginning on page 36.

We also feature stories to give you inspiration or make you think. Read how NSDA alum Frances Haugen used her speech and debate skills to shed light on the ways the public was being misled. Learn from the Hawai’i District’s engagement of alumni and discover the meaning behind the traditional leis at the National Tournament. Stop to consider the perspective of newer Alabama coach Cassie Rockette-Rogers who shares how she and her students are navigating learning about the activity together and her experience as a Black coach in the speech and debate space.

As we gear up for next school year, I reflect back on this one. It has had its unique challenges—par for the course the last few years. I am grateful for the educators who have continued to show up for students every day despite adversity and ever-increasing workload. I am thankful that this year has allowed for the return of an in-person National Tournament. For some, the event will be their first ever in-person tournament, even if they’ve been competing for years. As many of us gather this summer in Louisville, we will celebrate the efforts of our entire community that enabled speech and debate activities to continue these past three years.

Here’s to another year and calmer waters ahead.

J. Scott Wunn Executive Director

Rostrum A PUBLICATION OF THE NATIONAL SPEECH & DEBATE ASSOCIATION

401 Railroad Place, West Des Moines, IA 50265-4730 | Phone (920) 748-6206

J. Scott Wunn, Publisher

Amy Seidelman, Editor

Vicki Joss, Managing Editor

Annie Reisener, Associate Editor

Emily Bratton, Graphic Design Assistant

Newsstand Price

$9.99 per issue

Member Subscription Price

$24.99 for one year (5 issues)

Non-Member Subscription Price

$34.99 for one year (5 issues)

Rostrum (ISSN 1073-5526), Copyright © 2022 by the National Speech & Debate Association (NSDA), is published five times per year (Sept., Nov., Feb., Apr., and Aug.) by the NSDA, 401 Railroad Pl., West Des Moines, IA 50265-4730. Business and Editorial Offices: NSDA, 401 Railroad Pl., West Des Moines, IA, 50265-4730. Accounting and Circulation Offices: NSDA, 401 Railroad Pl., West Des Moines, IA 50265-4730. Call (920) 748-6206 to subscribe. Periodicals postage is paid at Des Moines, IA 50318, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to Rostrum, c/o NSDA, 401 Railroad Pl., West Des Moines, IA 50265-4730.

Rostrum provides a forum for the speech and debate community. The opinions expressed by contributors are their own and not necessarily the opinions of the NSDA, its officers, or its members. The National Speech & Debate Association does not guarantee advertised products and services unless sold directly by the NSDA.

ELECTED MEMBERS

Pam Cady Wycoff President

Minnesota

Dr. Tommie Lindsey, Jr. Vice President

California

Byron R. Arthur

Louisiana

David Huston

Texas

Adam J. Jacobi

Wisconsin

Jennifer M. Jerome

Nebraska

Renee C. Motter

Colorado

James W. Rye III

Alabama

APPOINTED MEMBERS

Dr. Alan H. Coverstone

District of Columbia

Dr. Mike Edmonds

Colorado

Sara Gibson

District of Columbia

Anoop Mishra

Alabama

Holly Williams

Arizona

To learn more about the Board, visit www.speechanddebate.org/ meet-the-team. You may also contact the Board by emailing board@speechanddebate.org.

OUR MISSION Rostrum shares best practices, resources, and opportunities that connect, support, and inspire a diverse community of educators committed to empowering students through speech and debate.

The American Legion’s National Oratorical Contest

The first place finisher of The American Legion’s National Oratorical Contest is awarded a $25,000 scholarship, second place $22,500, and third place $20,000. As part of the National Speech & Debate Association’s ongoing alliance with The American Legion, those top three finishers may also earn the right to compete in Original Oratory or United States Extemporaneous Speaking at the National Speech & Debate Tournament!

Topics

Member students and one chapter advisor per school are eligible to vote!

Topic Release Information

Public Forum Topic Release Dates

The PF Wording Committee creates a topic area with two resolutions for each topic cycle. All potential topics for the year are released in June. One week prior to the topic being released for that topic cycle, member students and one chapter adviser per active school will vote on which of the two topics they prefer. The topic that receives the most votes will be the topic for that cycle. The goal of this process is to increase transparency about topic selection and introduce new possibilities for coaches who teach debate in the classroom.

Aug. 1 - Aug. 7 Voting for the 2022 September/October PF Topic Occurs

August 8 2022 September/October PF Topic Announced

October 1 November/December PF Topic Announced

December 1 January PF Topic Announced

January 1 February PF Topic Announced

February 1 March PF Topic Announced

March 1 April PF Topic Announced

May 1 National Tournament PF Topic Announced

June 19 List of Potential PF Topic Areas Announced for 2023-2024

Lincoln-Douglas Topic Release Dates

The LD Wording Committee assigns a set of three topics to each bi-monthly topic cycle. All potential topics for the year are released in June. One week prior to the topic being released for that topic cycle, member students and one chapter adviser per active school will vote on which of the three topics they prefer. The topic that receives the most votes will be the topic for that cycle. The goal of this process is to increase transparency about topic selection and introduce new possibilities for coaches who teach debate in the classroom.

Aug. 1 - Aug. 7 Voting for the 2022 September/October LD Topic Occurs

August 8 2022 September/October LD Topic Announced

October 1 November/December LD Topic Announced

December 1 January/February LD Topic Announced

February 1 March/April LD Topic Announced

May 1 National Tournament LD Topic Announced

June 20 List of Potential LD Topics Announced for 2023-2024

2023–2024 Policy Debate Topic Voting

The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) handles selection of the annual topic. Each state organization, the National Speech & Debate Association (NSDA), the National Catholic Forensic League (NCFL), and the National Debate Coaches Association (NDCA) all have voting privileges.

• Topic synopsis released at www.speechanddebate.org/topics in September

• Preliminary voting on five topics occurs online in September and October

• Final voting on two topics occurs online in November and December

• Topic for 2023-2024 released by the NFHS in January 2023

ate organization, the ate organization, the

It’s Time for Nationals!

Topics and topic areas to be used during the 2022 National Tournament (including high school, middle school, and online supplemental events) are available online at www.speechanddebate.org/ national-tournament-topics .

#Nats22 Livestream

Encourage students, parents, alumni, and other supporters to watch National Tournament final rounds this June 16-17 at live.speechanddebate.org .

Send

www.speechanddebate.org/topics

NATIONAL SPEECH & DEBATE ASSOCIATION

Topic Rubric Questions

Topic Rubric Questions

In order to do our best to provide students with these skills, one essential step is to CONDUCT A N INTENTIONAL AND ONGOING E VALU ATION OF THE TOPICS we are encouraging students to explore. As such, we offer the following set of questions to evaluate each topic.

The NSDA conducts an intentional and ongoing evaluation of the topics we encourage students to explore. We use and offer to others the following set of questions to evaluate topics.

In order to do our best to provide students with these skills, one essential step is to CONDUCT A N INTENTIONAL AND ONGOING E VALU ATION OF THE TOPICS we are encouraging students to explore. As such, we offer the following set of questions to evaluate each topic.

1.Language

1.Language

Does the wording of the topic discriminate or unequally value others? Is the topic clear, as well as free of any cultural idioms that may disadvantage some participants?

Does the wording of the topic discriminate or unequally value others? Is the topic clear, as well as free of any cultural idioms that may disadvantage some participants?

4.Openness

4.Openness

Does the topic promote research and theorizing that challenges students to critically think about their world and consider different perspectives and experiences?

Does the topic promote research and theorizing that challenges students to critically think about their world and consider different perspectives and experiences?

2.Advocacy

2.Advocacy

Does the topic enable students to actively theorize and address ethical, social, political, and economic barriers that perpetuate inequalities by advocating for changes to policies and practices?

Does the topic enable students to actively theorize and address ethical, social, political, and economic barriers that perpetuate inequalities by advocating for changes to policies and practices?

5.Literature Base

5.Literature Base

In order to be competitive, does the topic compel students to research and present arguments that would stigmatize, discriminate against, or exclude a traditionally marginalized and disenfranchised community?

In order to be competitive, does the topic compel students to research and present arguments that would stigmatize, discriminate against, or exclude a traditionally marginalized and disenfranchised community?

3.Awareness

3.Awareness

Analyzing the topic from the perspective of many diverse student groups, does researching and theorizing about this topic promote awareness of specific experiences related to oppression and/or larger systemic issues?

Analyzing the topic from the perspective of many diverse student groups, does researching and theorizing about this topic promote awareness of specific experiences related to oppression and/or larger systemic issues?

6.Accessibility

6.Accessibility

In order to attract and sustain participation, does the topic facilitate an exploration of ideas related to established intellectual, social, or cultural interests?

In order to attract and sustain participation, does the topic facilitate an exploration of ideas related to established intellectual, social, or cultural interests?

Considering the present moment, will theorizing and researching the topic encourage supportive social, emotional, and intellectual interactions amongst the intended participants?

Furthermore, when creating an array of topics, you will also want to consider whether a significant portion of your topics reflect these questions. These questions are meant to be considered in addition to the above six .

Furthermore, when creating an array of topics, you will also want to consider whether a significant portion of your topics reflect these questions. These questions are meant to be considered in addition to the above six .

7. Intentional Inclusion

7 Intentional Inclusion

Intentional Inclusion – The topic compels students to explore ethical, social, political, and economic issues in a way that features the experiences and perspectives of traditionally marginalized and disenfranchised communities.

Intentional Inclusion – The topic compels students to explore ethical, social, political, and economic issues in a way that features the experiences and perspectives of traditionally marginalized and disenfranchised communities.

8.Justice

8.Justice

The topic provides opportunities to explore how we should define and live out social justice.

The topic provides opportunities to explore how we should define and live out social justice.

9.Power

9.Power

The topic promotes a deeper understanding of power imbalances.

Considering the present moment, will theorizing and researching the topic encourage supportive social, emotional, and intellectual interactions amongst the intended participants? Please

The topic promotes a deeper understanding of power imbalances.

When Joe and I retired as classroom educators, we decided to symbolically mark that chapter of our life with a pendulum clock for our home. The face of the clock is transparent to display the myriad of interlocking gears that make it function.

We liked that we could see “what makes it tick.” For us, this clock is a tangible reminder to reflect on our past yet look forward to the times that lie ahead!

In a similar manner, I’d like to reflect on the recent times we’ve experienced as a speech and debate community. Without a doubt, they have been incredibly challenging. However, my hope is that by contemplating some lessons learned, we, too, can look forward to what lies ahead.

To gain some perspective, during a break from tournament duties, I posed a question to a focus group of coaches. I asked them, “What, if anything, from our ‘speech and debate pandemic experience’ was positive? Are there options you were forced to do out of necessity that now you would choose to do?”

From Your Board President

As we talked, the creation and use of technology as a platform for online competition rose to the top of the positives list. It was viewed as a viable way to provide equitable access for students who may not otherwise be able to travel to tournaments. The opportunity to enlist alumni as judges or online coaches, as well as the potential to hire judges from outside the area, were also seen as pluses. Additionally, pivoting to online practices allowed students and programs greater scheduling flexibility.

These options were not necessarily viewed as preferable to in-person competition or practices, but rather as “valuable tools in the toolbox” for our activity to utilize when needed. For me, one of the greatest lessons learned was that amid all the barriers and hardships we confronted as a community, we demonstrated ingenuity, determination, and resilience. In the process, we found solutions that can and will continue to serve us into the future.

The group also shared that a positive was gaining a greater appreciation for

individual interaction and a sense of community. If it was ever taken for granted, having it taken away demonstrated how much we need and thrive on our human connections. Hearing this underscored our need to continue our organization’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. By upholding these values, we can foster mutual respect and a sense of true belonging throughout our community.

I found these conversations productive and energizing. As this academic year draws to a close, I encourage you to take a moment to reflect on what is working in your program and what may need adjustment. I also encourage district leaders to assess what is working or what needs improvement in your NSDA district. Talking with other stakeholders—whether it’s administrators, assistant coaches, parent volunteers, alumni, or students—will make a positive difference. Taking the time to reflect on and assess the past will establish an important foundation for the coming year.

Although the clock in our home requires that one of

us must periodically adjust the weights so that the pendulum can keep time, we appreciate that doing this creates the delicate balance that must be maintained for it to function. Doing this also allows musical chimes to mark the time. Similarly, as a coach, you must actively make the effort to maintain a delicate balance in your professional and personal life that allows you to create the time to enjoy the music in your life.

When I talked about this practice with my colleagues, one commented that reflection is something we know we should do, but amid all the demands of life, is often skipped over because we are busy focusing on the next thing that needs to get done. I encourage you to break that pattern. Just as the myriad of gears in our clock, big and small, reveal how it functions, taking the time to uncover what makes you, your program, or your district “tick,” can lead to great times ahead!

To be continued...

Pam Cady Wycoff NSDA Board President

A new online platform from the NSDA

NSDA Campus is an online platform offering team practice space and tournament hosting space at a low cost.

Host tournaments using either Tabroom.com or SpeechWire

OUR PRIORITIES:

• Participant security

• Low-cost option

• Simple, integrated user experience

To date, NSDA Campus has provided more than 100,000 rooms!

PER ROOM, PER DAY

NEW IN 2021-2022 Campus with Observers

Purchase Campus with Observers rooms for divisions where you wish to permit coaches to observe rounds. Coaches may designate observers on their school tournament dashboard on a per-entry basis. Those observers can then enter rooms from the tournament dashboard.

• Due to technical limits on the number of participants in NSDA Campus rooms, Campus with Observers is limited to two observers per entry in Debate events or one observer per entry in IE/Speech events. Campus with Observers cannot work with Congress.

• An event or division using Campus with Observers must do so for the entire tournament—e.g., it cannot be used for elimination rounds only, etc. Campus with Observers rooms are $12 per room per day.

www.speechanddebate.org/nsda-campus VISIT:

Celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander Month

We invite you to commemorate Asian American and Pacific Islander Month during the month of May with our literature collections and special poster series featuring speech and debate coaches and alumni! One of the many posters available for download is featured on the opposite page. Learn more at www.speechanddebate.org/equity

Notable Alumni: Recent Appointments

On April 7, the Senate confirmed Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as the 116th justice of the U.S. Supreme Court by a vote of 53-47. Jackson will become the first Black woman to serve on the court. Born in Washington, D.C., and raised in Miami, Florida, Jackson joined speech and debate under coach Fran Berger. “That was an experience that I can say without hesitation was the one activity that best prepared me for future success in law and in life,” Judge Jackson said in a lecture in 2017. “I learned how to reason and how to write, and I gained the self-confidence that can sometimes be quite difficult for women and minorities to learn at an early age.” Jackson placed sixth in Humorous Interpretation at the National Tournament in 1988.

In March, NSDA alum and 2016 William Woods Tate, Jr., National Student of the Year finalist Jordyn Zimmerman was appointed to the President’s Committee on People with Intellectual Disabilities. Jordyn is a graduate of Mentor High School in Ohio. Read more about Jordyn’s efforts toward communication, adaptation, and inclusion online at bit.ly/3upHuFv.

Read Recent Board Minutes

The minutes from the Board of Directors’ March Competition Rules meeting are available online: www.speechanddebate.org/ minutes-archive.

Seeking USA Debate Team Applicants

Each year, we select the best debaters in the country to represent the United States in international competition. Applications for the 2022-2023 USA Debate team are now open! Encourage interested students to get started or learn more about the stages of the application process at www.speechanddebate.org/usa-debate. Stage 1 of the application process closes June 1, 2022.

End of the Year Fun: Team Superlatives

Who on your team was most improved? Who was the spirit of the squad? Who had the best snacks? You or your students can use our downloadable team superlative certificate templates to celebrate your team at a team dinner, end of year banquet, or other senior send-off event. Get started at www.speechanddebate.org/virtual-team-superlativecertificates

Office Address Change: Coming Soon!

Later this summer, after the conclusion of the National Tournament, the NSDA national office will move to a new headquarters in West Des Moines, Iowa. Once relocation details are finalized, we will announce the official address to the membership. Our email and phone will remain the same: info@speechanddebate.org and (920) 748-6206. Stay up-to-date on these and other announcements by reading our newsletters! Access the archive or sign up to receive our communications at www.speechanddebate.org/ newsletters

DEBATE TAUGHT ME HOW TO TAKE MY IDEAS, RESEARCH THEM, AND TURN THEM INTO STORIES OTHERS BELIEVE IN. I AM THE BEST ME POSSIBLE BECAUSE DEBATE GAVE ME SKILLS I’VE USED EVERY SINGLE DAY OF MY LIFE.

WE ARE SPEECH & DEBATE

JOHN TAO

Weston High School, MA - Class of 2006

Executive Director, Milwaukee Debate League

TOP 5 BENEFITS OF CLAIMING YOUR NSDA ALUMNI MEMBERSHIP

Coaches, share this article with your seniors!

by Jessica Kincannon

Community is a core part of who we are at the National Speech & Debate Association, and you are part of our community long after you graduate from high school. Joining the NSDA alumni community not only keeps you connected with our organization, it also opens the door for us to celebrate you and offer you more opportunities to engage. Keep reading to discover the top five benefits of claiming your alumni membership.

1 Webinars

Our Alumni Webinar Series is built with the intention of creating engaging conversations comprised of learning opportunities, community development, and fun! Each webinar is formatted differently but may involve conversations with notable alumni, Q&A sessions with topic-specific panelists, and advice on how to apply your speech and debate skills in the real world. Visit www.speechanddebate.org/webinars to register for upcoming sessions!

2 Volunteer Opportunities

Alumni can participate in a variety of volunteer opportunities through the NSDA, including being a judge at speech and debate competitions in-person or online. We’ve even put together an entire judge training course that will teach you how to be a great volunteer judge, available at www.speechanddebate.org/ judge-training. We also include volunteer opportunities in our communications, granting you “first dibs” on giving back to the speech and debate community.

3 Paying It Forward

As someone who has competed in speech and debate, you know what an impact financial support has on a student, a team, and their school. As an alumni member, you can help students reach their full potential without letting a lack of financial

resources hold them back from competing. By donating to our Pay It Forward fund at www.speechanddebate.org/donate, you can make speech and debate more inclusive, giving students the same experience that has influenced your life.

4 Events

We are making big plans for the upcoming year to host alumni reunions, National Tournament watch parties, and additional events that will bring us back together to share experiences and celebrate the memories that speech and debate has given each of us. Visit our National Tournament website at www.speechanddebate.org/nationals for more information on how you can host a final rounds watch party!

5 Sharing Your Story

You know how important speech and debate was to your story—you lived it! We are handing over the microphone so our alumni can let middle school and high school students know there is a place for them in speech and debate. Your story could be the driving force that encourages a student to speak up and use their voice for change. Share your story using our online form: tinyurl.com/v9fwefax.

Your efforts as an NSDA alum help us get one step closer to unleashing every student’s superpower. Your time, energy, and resources ensure future generations will benefit from the power of speech and debate! As you journey through college, the workforce, and beyond, we want to stay connected. We are specifically focusing our alumni conversations via LinkedIn—follow us there for speech and debate news and upcoming alumni opportunities.

Jessica Kincannon serves as Content Specialist at the NSDA.

Gaining support from businesses is a great way to get additional funding for your season!

PITCHING SPONSORSHIP TO LOCAL BUSINESSES

by Annie Reisener

Making the Ask

1 SHARE YOUR PASSION FOR WHAT YOUR TEAM IS ALL ABOUT. Your excitement will show how much you care and help donors understand why they should, too.

Local businesses like to support their community— it’s good for business! Larger corporations can also be a strong source if you have a personal or logical connection, like a business whose mission is relevant to the year’s Policy Debate topic. Many teams and organizations are also asking businesses for money, so you need to stand out. Use the template on the following page to help you and your students get started—and check out our list of quick tips as you prepare to make the ask.

2 EXPLAIN WHAT THEIR DONATION CAN MAKE POSSIBLE. Be specific about the impact a donation will have on your team. Be clear what your team can do with $5, $100, $500, and more.

3 STAY CONFIDENT AND BE PROUD OF WHAT YOU’RE DOING. A “no” is not a personal rejection. Most people do not give the first time they are asked. It’s important to establish a relationship.

4 BE PREPARED TO TAKE MONEY ON THE SPOT. Before approaching a potential donor, prep yourself or your students for how to take donations. What payment methods are permitted? Consider cash, checks, team Venmo, etc.

5 TURN ONE-TIME DONORS INTO REPEAT DONORS. Be sure to follow up with each of your donors to thank them. When you do, share pictures and videos to show how their support helped you out. Donors who get responses back and see what their contribution helped make happen are MUCH MORE likely to give again.

$ Download the editable template: www.speechanddebate.org/ template-business-letter

Annie Reisener serves as Membership Director at the NSDA.

My name is [Name], and I am a student with the speech and debate team at [School Name]. I’m writing today on behalf of my team to inquire if [Company Name] might be interested in sponsoring our speech and debate team for our [Year] season! Our team competes against other top-ranked students across the state. [Insert a few team achievements.]

Speech and debate offers us an outlet where our voices are heard and celebrated. When we speak, debate, and perform, we have an audience who values our ideas and stories and offers us feedback so we can improve. Because of speech and debate, I have become more confident in every way. I raise my hand more in class. [Insert more personal examples.]

As a sponsor of our team, you would receive exclusive promotion in the community. [Insert pitch for sponsorship. Suggestions and package options below. Evaluate what makes the most sense for your team based on the number of students, your schedule, and your options for local businesses.]

Season Sponsorship Package — [$ Amount]

Your gift will help send students from our team to tournaments throughout the year, help us host our own tournament, and cover the cost of student membership in the National Speech & Debate Association Honor Society. This package includes:

• Promotion on our team’s social media pages, where we post results after every tournament

• Logo placement alongside team photos on the header of our social media banners

• Mention in schoolwide announcements when team results are shared

• Listing on team shirts

• Exclusive sponsorship of our [Year] tournament, reaching [#] people/teams in [#] cities/states

• Listing on tournament trophies

Send the Team to a Tournament Package — [$ Amount]

Your gift will cover registration costs for our students to compete at a tournament this year as they discuss global issues and build their skills. This package includes:

• Promotion on our team’s social media pages, where we post results after the tournament

• Mention in schoolwide announcements, where tournament results are shared

Sponsor a Student for the Season Package — [$ Amount]

Your gift will provide a membership in the National Speech & Debate Association Honor Society for one of our students and give them the opportunity to compete at tournaments throughout the year. This package includes:

• Promotion on our team’s social media pages, where we post results after every tournament

Our previous sponsors have included [X Company] and [Y Company]. For more detailed information about our team, you can visit our websites at the following links:

• www.highschool.com/SpeechAndDebateTeam (Team website)

• www.facebook.com/SpeechAndDebateTeam (Facebook page)

Thank you very much for your consideration. I look forward to hearing back from you soon!

[Name]

Student, Speech and Debate Team

[Team Contact Info » Phone/Email]

SPEECH AND DEBATE TO THE RESCUE

by Amy Seidelman

The U.S. Congress recently passed one of the largest education funding initiatives in history, and speech and debate programs are uniquely positioned to benefit. Across the nation, many school districts find themselves in a new position—excess funding with few ideas on how to spend it all. We believe speech and debate can help!

The American Rescue Plan (ARP) launched a new slate of education funding to address the impact of COVID-19 on learning and learners across the United States. Since then, the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER Fund), now in its third iteration, has awarded billions in grants to state education agencies (SEAs) to provide local educational agencies with emergency relief funds. The funding has specific

purposes to aid learning recovery, including two that offer a strong tie to speech and debate programming:

• Implementing strategies to meet the social, emotional, mental health, and academic needs of students hit hardest by the pandemic, including through evidence-based interventions and critical services.

• Funding crucial summer, after-school, and other extended learning and enrichment programs. The funding flows

directly to school districts with the provision that at least 20% of these subgrants are dedicated “to promote learning recovery including comprehensive after-school programs and summer learning or enrichment programs.”

While each state has already submitted a plan for the third round of funding, called ARP ESSER or ESSER III, many of those plans allow for a wide range of flexibility in how schools access those funds.

How you approach whether your speech and debate program is eligible to be part of your school district’s ESSER fund planning and use will differ depending on how your district is structured. Asking your principal for information is a great place

to start. They may be your direct contact for how the funding is allocated.

In a larger district, a representative from the superintendent’s office, the curriculum department, activities director, or district administrator who oversees secondary schools may be involved. It’s also possible your local school board has a voice in the process.

Your district may have a fair amount of discretion over the spending or may need to submit specific ideas as part of a future plan to the state. Whoever you contact, be prepared to address how your speech and debate program fits the ESSER funding requirements.

Preparing information for your district to consider in ESSER planning

What you need to prepare or demonstrate to secure funding may differ depending on your state or district, so reaching out to someone in-the-know first is key. Here are some things you’ll likely need to know based on the funding guidance and requirements.

What did your district apply for? It’s likely your district has already made a case for how it will use funding with the state education agency (SEA). If so, start with that request to see how your offerings fit in.

Youth served: Who do you serve now? How can you expand with additional funding, in terms of who you can serve and how many students, or how can you serve current students better?

• Have you been hoping for a speech and debate class for years? Maybe now’s the time to make the pitch with extra funds at play. NSDA membership includes access to grab-and-go collections of lessons designed to introduce students to different events. More than 95% of coaches rated the collection positively for educational standards, usefulness, and quality.

• How could you expand your program by taking on new events or explore better serving specific groups, including students with disabilities and students from traditionally marginalized and disenfranchised communities? There is a collection of NSDA Engaging and Mentoring courses available for free as professional development to help you chart a course at www.speechanddebate.org/learn

Quality/impact: What youth outcomes does your program support? It will be important to focus on how your program supports the development of academic, social, and emotional skills. Speech and debate can be especially effective with reading recovery, SEL, and academic growth in general.

Data and evidence are important to demonstrate impact. If you do not have any data tied to your own program’s outcomes, visit www.speechanddebate.org/ advocacy for “making the case” resources, advocacy articles and studies, and administrator letters of support that provide helpful testimony to outcomes achieved through speech and debate in schools.

Other key questions to answer regarding impact, based on the U.S. Department of Education guidelines, include:

• Do your curricula/activities align with your state’s standards and your school district’s curriculum?

• How/does your program target youth needing additional support? Keep in mind that, especially if you operate after school and engage students in weekend competitions, speech and debate offers academic, social, and emotional development beyond school through a comprehensive, holistic experience. You also provide students with personalized support that builds on and reinforces school day lessons, engages students in 21st century skills, and provides diversified types of learning through different events. You can advocate that speech and debate creates a sense of belonging, a place where students feel connected—something students need for educational recovery. If your students represent low income households or those hardest hit by the pandemic, that supports key aspects of the funding purpose as well.

(continued on next page)

Download a letter to get started sharing the “speech and debate effect” data that can help make your case for ESSER funding!

www.speechanddebate.org/ funding-letter

• Does your program staff include certified teachers?

• Does your program offer youth any certifications or other benefits upon completion? NSDA Honor Society membership and degrees, Academic All American award eligibility, as well as service awards and other certifications, could all be a factor here.

• What does your process for evaluating and improving the quality of your program look like? This would be a good time to consider tracking the impact of the program on participating students through grades or another mechanism at your disposal, with the added plus that if you can demonstrate improvement over time, the program is more likely to continue to be funded at an appropriate level when ESSER funding ends. If your program has some longevity, establish its credibility through things like NSDA charter status or prior school awards earned.

Community support/engagement: How does your program support the school or wider community? This is a good opportunity to talk about service, including NSDA service points, if applicable. It’s also a good place to demonstrate how your program kept going during the pandemic. Did you offer online speech and debate and effectively keep some students engaged and therefore learning?

Operations: How are you currently operating (i.e., program format and length)? Are you planning to offer any summer enrichment, or could you with this additional funding?

Funding required: What is the cost of running your program? Be prepared to share your program budget and what its shortcomings are. What are your anticipated additional costs related to COVID-19 and operating/competing safely inperson (e.g., hotel rooms, technology for online competitions, use of NSDA Campus, etc.).

How does your program support the district’s larger goals? Given everything aforementioned and the academic benefits speech and debate offers, how can you and your district set and achieve shared goals for students?

This is also a good exercise to support your general team fundraising efforts.

These are useful arguments for you to make in any fundraising endeavor, including other grants, business sponsorships, or community fundraising opportunities you may pursue. If this feels like a lot to take on, consider if you have program alumni with relevant expertise who might be willing to help you set up more official attempts at budgeting, program evaluation, and advocacy arguments to build a more stable foundation for your program with the school.

Helping another school?

If you’re in a position to pitch to other schools that they consider using ESSER funding to start speech and debate programs, please reach out to the NSDA as a partner. We provide membership support for new initiatives through our Communicators in the Classroom programming.

Learn more

State Plans: https://oese.ed.gov/offices/americanrescue-plan/american-rescue-plan-elementary-andsecondary-school-emergency-relief/stateplans

NEA ESSER Funding Guide: https://www.nea.org/ resource-library/esser-funds-bargaining-and-advocacyguidance-safe-and-equitable-schools

NSDA Funding Letter: https://www.speechanddebate. org/funding-letter

Amy Seidelman serves as Assistant Executive Director at the NSDA.

FUNDING SPEECH AND DEBATE

by Jessica Kincannon

Fundraising is typically met with some apprehension—and groaning. But it doesn’t have to be that way! We asked several teams about their unique approaches to raising funds for their speech and debate programs.

Can you speak to the planning specifics?

We begin planning in September and vote on a theme. From there, we craft a storyline, plan characters, and host auditions. The beauty of a haunted house is the budget is often small; most things can be borrowed or thrifted.

Tips for beginners? Invite your administration to walk through the floor plan ahead of time. Also, having shifts for parents makes them more likely to volunteer.

STEVE WANG

Who all is involved?

Fundraising Concept: HAUNTED HOUSE FUNDRAISER

How did you get started?

We started small with the haunted house (or hallway, rather) specifically for our Partners Club, a group for students with special education needs. Now, the haunted house is a two-story, multiple-evening affair.

We have stagecraft students who create the set. Drama students perform as actors. Speech and debate students help with technical support, marketing, ticket sales—you name it. We also use parents and staff to improve safety.

Who can attend the event and how much do you typically charge?

The event is open to the public except on the Partners Club night, when only the partners and their families may attend free of charge. We usually charge about $5 for the attraction and make around $850 to $1,000.

NORTH HALL HIGH SCHOOL • GEORGIA

Fundraising Concept: COMMUNITY AND CORPORATE FOUNDATION GRANT FUNDING

What makes a strong application?

I typically include a brief history of the program and highlight milestones our program has reached. A

a budget for the hosting of our invitational. A projected budget for the costs of the rest of our season is also generally useful.

What types of funding have you received?

Sponsorships for trophies and food to host our annual invitational, a school grant, and volunteer judging that can be hired out when invitationals are hosted.

Is it worth the time invested to apply?

Certainly. The most important factor has been to solidify the needed information for the grant during the summer. So when it comes time to apply, it can be finalized quickly in the fall.

Do you do any follow-up?

I typically send thank you cards and follow up with news of what the team has been able to accomplish as the season progresses.

Tips for beginners?

Look for “natural friends” in your community such as Optimist Clubs, Toastmasters Clubs, Rotary Clubs, etc. Even if they aren’t able to help directly, their members may

MALINDA PEREZ MACARTHUR HIGH SCHOOL • OKLAHOMA

MACARTHUR HIGH SCHOOL, OK

Debate.JPG

NORTH HALL HIGH SCHOOL, GA

JESSICA CERCHIARO & TRACEY SPINELLI

OUR LADY OF THE SACRED HEART HIGH SCHOOL & MOON AREA HIGH SCHOOL

• PENNSYLVANIA

Fundraising Concept: CO-HOST A TOURNAMENT

How did you decide to co-host?

TRACEY: I had considered not hosting a tournament this season because I had a conflict with the date. I mentioned this to our district chair. She suggested that Jessica and I co-host the tournament. I’ve known Jessica for a few years, so it only took a second for me to decide to co-host with her.

How did you split up responsibilities, funds, etc.?

JESSICA: It was a natural division since they had the larger facility. They took care of the judges’ lounge, registration, and ordered trophies. We handled food and paid for Tabroom.com. We both submitted our receipts for reimbursement and then split the profits evenly.

Tips for beginners?

TRACEY: Address things as they happen, ask each other questions, make suggestions, and be flexible.

JESSICA: It was not an issue for us at all—but I would advise someone co-hosting to have a clear, maybe written plan about how money would be spent and split.

MICHAEL AMSTUTZ

EDISON HIGH SCHOOL • OHIO

Fundraising Concept: STEM-RELATED GRANT FUNDING

How do you find grants?

The best way to search for grants is to check your local chamber of commerce, law offices, Board of Education, or any nationwide company that has an office in your area. What makes a strong application? Many times the grant topics deal with STEMrelated areas of research.

Anything you can tie to science, tech., math or the environment catches the eye of the decision-making panel. I also stress that USX and IX competitors have to be well-read in the sciences and current events.

Is it worth the time invested to apply?

No matter the size of the grant, funds are funds. I usually do not ask for anything over $1,000, especially if it is a first-time application. You don’t want to scare away potential donors.

Do you do any follow-up?

We send a thank you card, newspaper

articles, and a final report with receipts at the end of the competitive year.

Tips for beginners?

A cover letter is always good to explain what your program does and how many students are impacted. You also MUST express the need factor. The money is out there, you just have to look for it.

Jessica Kincannon serves as Content Specialist at the NSDA.

LADY OF THE SACRED HEART, PA

AREA HIGH SCHOOL, PA

EDISON HIGH SCHOOL, OH

ADAPTED FROM OUR DECLAMATION STARTER KIT

Share this guide with your students!

by Elena Cecil

What is Declamation?

The name Declamation comes from the word declaim , which is to utter or deliver words or a speech in a rhetorical or impassioned way. The speech community has taken this term and turned it into an event that is designed to showcase the impassioned ideas of formidable thinkers.

Declamation is the performance of a speech someone else has written and performed at some point. It combines the public speaking aspect of Oratory and the interpretation aspect of black book events. The art of Declamation is at its heart about speaking passionately.

Speeches are 10 minutes with a 30-second grace period in case timing or performance are off just slightly during any given performance. The speech being performed must have been given publicly and available to print in transcript form, and the performance must have an introduction that states the title of the speech and the author.

Topics

The topics discussed in Declamation run the gamut. Declamation is designed to have speakers take a topic they’re passionate about and share with and persuade others. The goal is to convey a message with clarity, emotion, and persuasiveness. What’s so amazing about Declamation is that you, as a beginning speaker, get to take a speech about something you really care about that has been

written by someone who perhaps has more research and time committed, which gives them more expertise or experience with the topic, and share it with the whole speech community!

Inspiration

So where do you even begin to look for inspiration or potential pieces? There are some amazing resources out there! When you begin your hunt, it might be helpful to have an idea of specific criteria you’re searching for. This is especially helpful when you’re doing a general search on something like Google or YouTube. If you aren’t sure what you’re looking for, TED.com is a great place to start! The amazing thing about TED is, there are thousands of videos about any topic you could imagine—and every official TED Talk video comes with a transcript! Head to TED.com to get started or visit the full starter kit for a list of suggestions.

Notable Examples

It’s hard to start an event, even when you have some helpful tips, if you have never checked it out. Take in these two examples from the Middle School Speech Challenge and examine how the speakers approach their performances, honing in on the choices they made and what about them works.

Why We All Need to Practice Emotional First Aid

performed by Irene Sheen (2020)

https://tinyurl.com/ycxe7rm7

Irene performs a speech written by a psychologist and discusses the importance of treating mental wounds just like you would physical ones. Irene uses both hand gestures and tone to create a performance that captures your attention and challenges your thinking. Consider:

• What emotions does Irene invoke throughout the piece? List them out. How do they convey those emotions through their tone, gestures, and pacing? Do they slow down or speed through the line? Do they move fluidly from gesture to gesture or hold a movement through the conclusion of a thought? Do they overuse any gestures or facial expressions, devaluing their impact, or do all movements feel natural?

• What are the moments where their delivery is most powerful? How do pacing, gestures, expressions, and story contribute?

• A strong Declamation will connect to the audience. Did you feel a connection? How did the performance affect your mood?

The Game that Can Give You 10 Extra Years of Life

performed by Emily Wang (2021)

https://tinyurl.com/37bbux7e

Emily’s performance focuses on this idea of solitude and loneliness. Emily uses inflection to emphasize the importance of the development of connections. Emily uses body language and hand gestures to add emphasis in particular parts that are especially important. As you watch Emily’s performance, answer these questions:

• Take in the performance, then check out the original TED Talk. What do you think of the cutting? A Declamation should deliver the message of the author in an original and engaging manner. Did this performer succeed? Did they capture the crux of the story? Are there moments you would have included that didn’t make the cut? How would they have changed the picture?

• How does the performer’s body language impact the feelings you have about the content?

• What did you think of the performer’s decision to add different voices for the impersonations they did throughout stories? Did it draw you into the story or distract you? Why?

• Did your opinion on the subject matter change after the speech? What made it change?

Elena Cecil serves as an intern at the NSDA.

www.speechanddebate.org/declamation-starter-kit

LESSON 11: RHETORIC

TOPIC:

Rhetoric: Using language

Essential Question + Objectives

How can I use the most persuasive language in my speeches?

1. Students will be able to identify Aristotle’s three means of persuasion: ethos, logos, and pathos.

2. Students will be able to write persuasive speeches that incorporate rhetorical devices.

MATERIALS/RESOURCES:

• TED-Ed video, “What Aristotle and Joshua Bell can teach us about persuasion,” by Conor Neil

• Steve Jobs’s Stanford University commencement speech video and transcript

• Highlighters - 3 different colors

• Copies of the article Using Rhetorical Strategies for Persuasion

Insight:

Rhetoric is the art of persuasion and can ultimately be one of the most important ways a debater can craft a speech to win a debate round. In this lesson, students will learn Aristotle’s three types of persuasion so they can identify each one and understand how the use of these persuasive appeals can affect the audience.

Ethos, logos, and pathos are persuasive strategies used in arguments and should be present in all debates. A debate case that lacks ethos lacks credibility. Without logos, a case is missing logic; and without pathos, debaters miss out on connecting with the judge through an emotional appeal.

TEACHING MIDDLE SCHOOL PUBLIC FORUM

SAMPLE PLAN (continued)

LESSON 11: r h E tO r I c START HERE : TEACHING MIDDLE SCHOOL PUBLIC FORUM

ONE-DAY LESSON

HOOK

NAME:

10 minutes

Begin by telling students they should take notes as you show the 4:40 TED-Ed video, “What Aristotle and Joshua Bell can teach us about persuasion,” by Conor Neil. After you show the video, check for comprehension. There are five multiple choice and three open ended questions (with an answer key) on the TED-Ed website, which accompany the video.

BODY

RHETORICAL STRATEGIES QUIZ

1. Who wrote “Rhetoric: The Three Means of Persuasion”?

A. Aristotle B. Socrates C. Plato

2. Which is NOT a means of persuasion?

A. Ethos B. Logos C. Bezos D. Pathos

3. This type of rhetoric appeals to logic or reason.

A. Ethos B. Logos

30-40 minutes

Next, give each student a copy of the transcript of Steve Jobs’s 2005 commencement speech They will also need three different colored highlighters. Ask students to all use the same three colors to represent each of the three means of persuasion, such as yellow for ethos, orange for logos, and purple for pathos.

As you play the commencement video, ask students to use the three different colors to highlight the various examples of each mode of persuasion. There are multiple examples of all three, but answers could vary because parts of the speech could represent multiple types of persuasion.

Review answers through a class discussion. In the circumstance that different students label one part of the speech as more than one color, allow them to discuss why they believe it to be one more than the other, but guide the conversation back to the ultimate motivation Jobs likely had for including that particular piece of information in the story. Doing so will likely help them all come to the same conclusion.

Ask students which method Jobs used more frequently than others (pathos) and why they believe it worked so well in this speech.

HOMEWORK: Assign students to read the article by Purdue University’s Online Writing Lab called “Using Rhetorical Strategies for Persuasion ”

ASSESSMENT : Rhetorical Strategies Quiz and answer key included. You may assign this as homework or start the next lesson with the quiz.

CLOSURE 5-10 minutes

LESSON 11: r h E tO r I c

Ask students to look at their cases and identify examples of ethos, logos, and pathos. Likely everyone will have logos and ethos, but they may not have known it as such prior to this lesson. Examples of logos and ethos should now be easily recognizable.

START HERE : TEACHING MIDDLE SCHOOL PUBLIC FORUM

What may be missing, however, is pathos. A great example of pathos in debate cases is the close of a case or a rebuttal speech, drawing a conclusion about the biggest impact for each side (pro/ con), such as “because you value saving lives, vote con” or “prioritize saving lives, vote pro.”

Ask students to take a few minutes to evaluate their cases and add pathos by adding a close to their case that relies on an emotional appeal, like the examples in the paragraph above.

C. Pathos

4. Which type of rhetoric appeals to the credibility of the speaker or the author?

A. Ethos B. Logos C. Pathos

5. The following sentence is an example of which type of rhetorical appeal?

“If my age isn’t enough to convince you that I know what I’m talking about, at least consider that am your teacher, and I only want the best for you.”

A. Ethos B. Logos

C. Pathos

6. Short answer (answer the following question in two or three complete sentences): Briefly define logical fallacy and give one or more examples from the article you read about persuasion.

RHETORICAL STRATEGIES

1. Who wrote “Rhetoric: The Three Means of Persuasion”?

KEY

NATIONAL SPEECH & DEBATE ASSOCIATION • www.speechanddebate.org

A. Aristotle B. Socrates

2. Which is NOT a means of persuasion?

3. This type of rhetoric appeals to logic or reason.

C. Plato

A. Ethos B. Logos C. Bezos D. Pathos

A. Ethos B. Logos

4. Which type of rhetoric appeals to the credibility of the speaker or the author?

A. Ethos B. Logos

5. The following sentence is an example of which type of rhetorical appeal?

C. Pathos

C. Pathos

“If my age isn’t enough to convince you that I know what I’m talking about, at least consider that I am your teacher, and I only want the best for you.”

A. Ethos B. Logos

C. Pathos

6. Short answer (answer the following question in two or three complete sentences) Briefly define logical fallacy and give one or more examples from the article you read about persuasion.

Answers should include that a logical fallacy is an error in reasoning that undermines the logic of an argument. Examples may include any of the following:

• Slippery Slope

• Hasty Generalization

Begging the Claim Circular Argument

Either/Or

• Ad Hominem

• Ad Populum

• Red Herring

NATIONAL SPEECH & DEBATE ASSOCIATION www.speechanddebate.org

rhetorical Strategies kEY

Save time in class or at practice with our grab-and-go lessons to introduce young students to Public Forum Debate! Guide them through understanding resolutions, researching, constructing cases, and responding to arguments, all while assessing their knowledge each step of the way.

This Public Forum Debate collection features 12 lessons spanning the course of five or more weeks of instruction. Download the full series now and stay tuned for Middle School Congress, coming soon!

ANNOUNCING NEW FEATURES

We’ve been hard at work creating some exciting new features for Tabroom.com. Here are four of them!

by Kevon Haughton

1 Tracking Team Practice Attendance

Tabroom.com can now track team practice attendance. Coaches can create a practice session in Tabroom and mark students on their roster as present. The system keeps a running log of which and how many practices students have attended. Follow these steps to get started:

• Access the Practice Tracker from the home page of Tabroom.com by selecting the Practice tab.

2 Adding Student Name Pronunciations

Competitors may now enter their own pronunciation guide to help others pronounce their names if their coaches have not already done so. Follow these steps to add phonetic spellings:

• Select the Profile button on the top right corner of the Tabroom.com home page.

• If you’ve already created practice sessions, then you should see a list of upcoming ones. If none have been created yet, select the Create button.

• Add a title, day on the calendar, and start/end times. If the practice occurs regularly (i.e., every day or every week), you can add that as well. Once scheduled, select the icon under “Mark” at far left to record who attended each practice session on the next screen using the Y/N toggle.

• Select the Edit Names button.

• Competitors will see a text box to enter a phonetic spelling next to the student’s name (e.g., Kev-ON HAW-ton). If a student is affiliated with multiple institutions, they should add the phonetic spelling to all of their contestant records on various rosters.

• The pronunciation guide will appear whenever the tournament staff prints an awards script.

Kevon Haughton serves as Tournament Services Coordinator at the NSDA.

3 Adding Topics to Each Round

Tabroom.com now offers the ability to add topics round by round for judges to see, and they’ll appear under the comment section of the judge’s ballots for rounds that they were assigned.

Follow these steps to add topics to each round:

• Go to Settings, then Events. Select the desired event, then click Ballot & Rules.

• Choose Round and enter the ballot topics.

• At right is a sample judge’s ballot showing where topics assigned for Round 2 would appear at the bottom.

4 Per-Event Student Voting

Competitors can now use a generalized student voting feature (if enabled by tournament administrators) that previously was only designated for Congress. Tournament admins can use this feature on a per-event basis for instances such as student-selected legislation or awards (e.g., The Julia Burke Award at the Tournament of Champions).

Follow these steps to turn on student voting:

• Go to Settings, then Events.

• Select the desired event, then click Ballot & Rules.

To learn more about Tabroom.com features and support, visit docs.tabroom.com and support.tabroom.com

• Scroll down to the bottom of the page and select the blue Vote button to configure competitor vote settings.

• On the next screen, enter the relevant information/directions for conducting the student vote, including opening and closing dates.

• You can also choose to add ballot options directly by uploading a CSV file, or add URLs with supporting documentation.

TIP: You can email all entries in a specific event about the vote directly from this page by clicking the blue icon after adding a message.

NATIONAL TOURNAMENT UPDATES

High School National Tournament

Our annual competition will be held June 12-17, 2022, in Louisville, Kentucky. Read on for additional information and be sure to visit our website for complete details: www.speechanddebate.org/nationals .

• District Leader Reception and Awards Ceremony: This event is open to district leaders. Join national office staff and Board members for a tournament welcome, distribution of district awards, and social connection. The reception kicks off at 12:00 p.m.

Schedule Overview

Find full roundby-round schedules and venue information on our website. Note: All information is tentative and subject to change. Times are shown in Eastern Time (ET).

SUNDAY • JUNE 12

Registration for coaches of teams beginning competition on Monday will run all day Sunday from 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. An adult representative for the team must stop by to pick up your materials and can ask any questions! All attendees are encouraged to visit the NSDA Store to explore speech and debate merchandise and insignia. Stop by the Expo to connect with college programs, camps, and more! Additional events will also take place throughout the day.

• First-Time Coach Reception: This event is open to any adults new(er) to the in-person National Tournament. National office staff will cover tournament basics and key information and answer any questions. Plan to join us at either 10:00 a.m. or 3:00 p.m. on Sunday!

• Coaches’ Caucuses: Attendees will network with other coaches and join in important discussion and dialogue about the successes, needs, and challenges of communities.

• Mandatory World Schools Debate Judge Training: This event is open to all and starts at 2:00 p.m. Judges entered in World Schools Debate are required to attend the training. Students are welcome but not required to attend to increase their understanding of the format and evaluation.

• Optional Speech, Debate, and Congress Judge Trainings: Join us Sunday afternoon to learn the basics of judging! Separate training sessions will be held for judges in speech, debate, and Congress. At each session, expert coaches will walk beginner judges through the event format, best practices for judging, and how to provide constructive, culturally competent feedback. Visit the Nats22 Guidebook app for times and locations.

MONDAY • JUNE 13

For most events, competition begins at 9:00 a.m. Be ready to go with your ribbons and masks at 8:15 a.m. to make it to your competition space on time!

Preliminary rounds will last into the evening with time set aside for lunch. Lunch will be available for purchase at each competition venue throughout the week.

TUESDAY • JUNE 14

Registration for teams competing in only in-person supplemental events occurs. Preliminary rounds conclude in main events. Elimination rounds for all main events except Big Questions begin Tuesday evening. Re-registration for supplemental events is open on Tabroom.com from 12:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. All competitors who pre-registered for supplemental events, even if they did not compete in main events, must re-register during this window to confirm their participation. In order to avoid large gatherings this year, there will be no traditional student party. Instead, postings will be livestreamed and posted online at Tabroom.com Tuesday evening.

WEDNESDAY • JUNE 15

Elimination rounds continue with all main events and Big Questions moving to duPont Manual High School and Noe Middle School. In-person supplemental events for re-registered competitors begin on Wednesday morning.

THURSDAY • JUNE 16

Extemp Debate and Supplemental Speech events continue. Elimination rounds continue at duPont Manual High School and Noe Middle School. Watch final rounds in Freedom Hall at the Kentucky Expo Center this evening!

FRIDAY • JUNE 17

High school main event finals are June 16-17, and the Friday awards ceremony will be socially distanced. The venue is sizable and attendance will not be restricted, except that attendees must be registered and have completed the COVID-19 mitigation protocols to attend, and ribbons and masks must be worn for entrance. Finals and awards will be livestreamed as they occur.

Supplemental Events

The 2022 National Tournament features two separate divisions for supplemental events: in-person and online.

High school in-person supplemental event finals held Friday, June 17 at the Kentucky Expo Center may be limited to a specific number of guests per finalist. Guests must have completed the COVID-19 mitigation protocols to attend, and ribbons and masks must be worn. Finals will be livestreamed as they occur.

On June 2-4, students who are joining us online and not traveling to Louisville will have the opportunity to participate in online supplemental events. Winners of the online events will be named online supplemental event national champions! The online supplement event finals will be aired via the NSDA livestream during the in-person high school tournament the following week. A virtual awards ceremony recognizing top-placing competitors and schools will be held Saturday, June 4, and winners will also be celebrated as part of the high school awards ceremony June 17. A complete schedule will be available closer to the event. Learn more at www.speechanddebate.org/ onlinesupps

Online Middle School National Tournament

The 2022 Middle School National Speech & Debate Tournament will be held online June 7-9, 2022, using NSDA Campus. Live debate, live speech, and asynchronous speech events will be offered. Elimination rounds will be held in live events, and the best of the best will be named middle school national champions! Learn more at msnats.tabroom.com

www.speechanddebate.org/nationals

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Congratulations on making it to the National Tournament! Whether this is your first in-person Nationals or your first in a few years, here are a few frequently asked questions to help you prepare for the week. If you have other questions, please contact us at info@ speechanddebate.org . We’re here to make the week as stress-free and enjoyable as possible.

When should we arrive?

For teams beginning competition on Monday, registration will be from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, June 12. Stop by to pick up your materials and ask any questions! Late registration will be from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. for schools arriving in the evening.

We also encourage you to try to make it to our reception for new coaches! We will hold the event twice on Sunday, once at 10:00 a.m. and once at 3:00 p.m. Stop by either session for an overview of the

tournament, connect with national office staff and other new coaches, and ask any burning questions about the week ahead.

A makeup registration will be held early in the morning on Monday, June 13. This is not recommended, especially for first time coach attendees, as competition begins and adding that extra stop in the morning may be a stressful way to begin the week.

Registration will take place on Tuesday, June 14 for teams competing in only in-person supplemental events.

What identification is required?

For security reasons and for ensuring compliance with COVID-19 protocols, all attendees must wear identifying ribbons at all times. Ribbons are distributed at registration. There are generic competitor ribbons for students and specific versions for Senators and Representatives in Congress who have their names printed as well. We’ll get you what you need! Coaches and judges receive badges with their names and choose their ribbons.

In addition to Coach and Judge ribbons, there are several other identifying and celebratory ribbons coaches can choose from at inperson registration, like First Time at Nationals, District Leader, and more!

What is the Tournament Book?

The Tournament Book (or T-Book as it’s often abbreviated) is a commemorative program for the National Tournament! It is available online in early June, and print copies are distributed at registration.

What is the Nats22 Guidebook app?

follow signs to stop by the tournament office inperson at any competition venue or message the NSDA Helpline for remote assistance. You can also stop anyone wearing a Tournament Official ribbon to ask for help!

I have a question or concern relating to NSDA rules—who should I ask?

How do judges know where to go and when?

We create a FREE app for the tournament, which will be available for download in June. This app contains maps, schedules, postings, and more! All attendees should use it as a go-to resource for finding critical information. Note: We strongly recommend allowing push notifications so you don’t miss any important tournament announcements!

Judges are obligated by day as opposed to round-by-round. On the days they are covering an obligation, judges are obligated for every round. Their specific event assignments and locations will be available via Tabroom.com in June. They will use Tabroom.com to check for ballots and, if they don’t have an assignment, report to judge pooling until all rooms that round have started or “cleared.” Learn more under the Judges tab at www.speechanddebate. org/national-tournament2022-coaches

How do we find pairings?

ATTENTION

ATTENTION

Who can help me?

Face masks and tournament ribbons are required for attendees.

ATTENTION

ATTENTION

All other attendees, including parents, chaperones, siblings, and other observers, are required to wear an Attendee ribbon. Attendees can also choose pronoun buttons (students) or ribbons (adults) to affix to their clothing. All ribbons pin on; please dress accordingly.

All rules for the National Tournament can be found in the Unified Manual, which is downloadable at www.speechanddebate. org/high-school-unifiedmanual. Please keep in mind that your local/state rules may be different than those used for this tournament. If you still have questions or concerns after consulting the Unified Manual, please stop by the tournament office at your venue and speak to someone on duty there.

Face masks and tournament ribbons are required for attendees.

Face masks and tournament ribbons are required for attendees.

Face masks and tournament ribbons are required for attendees.

In the leadup to the tournament, contact the national office as you regularly would by emailing info@speechanddebate.org or calling (920) 748-6206. During the tournament, your key sources of information are the Nationals website (www.speechanddebate. org/nationals) and the Nats22 Guidebook app.

If you can’t find the answer there, you can

How do meals work during the tournament?

During the tournament day, there are lunch options for sale at each competition venue. Specific options differ by venue. There are no presold meals purchasable through the tournament in advance.

Round pairings/schematics (who’s competing against who and where) will be available via the Nats22 Guidebook app or on Tabroom.com.

Where are the competition spaces? How do I get to them?

Competition will be held at various schools, on the University of Louisville campus, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, and at the Kentucky Expo Center.

LOST YOUR MASK OR RIBBON? Please visit the tournament office immediately.

LOST YOUR MASK OR RIBBON? Please visit the tournament office immediately.

How/when will I know if my students advance to elimination rounds?

Results of all elimination rounds prior to finals will be posted on Tabroom.com.

Main speech event postings will be released at the following times:

• Top 60 Speech (Rounds 7/8) — Tuesday midday

• Top 30 Speech (Rounds 9/10) — Tuesday evening

• Speech Semifinalists (Rounds 11/12) — Wednesday midday

• Speech Finalists — Wednesday evening

Policy, Lincoln-Douglas, and Public Forum teams who win at least 8 prelim ballots will advance to Rounds 7/8. Each qualifying team will begin with a clear record and debate double down and out until two remain for a final round. Beginning with round 7, Policy, Lincoln-Douglas, and Public Forum judges will announce their decisions at the end of the debates.

Congress, World Schools, and Big Questions advancing entries will be announced at their respective competition venues.

How does re-registration work for in-person supplemental events?

Competitors in main events who are pre-registered and do not advance to elimination round competition on Wednesday of the National Tournament are eligible to re-register for in-person supplemental events on Tuesday. Re-registration to confirm participation must occur between 12:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. on Tuesday, June 14 through Tabroom.com. Students who pre-registered but do not re-register will not be scheduled for competition. This applies to both students who compete in main events and students who are only competing in supplemental events.

How late can I pre-register for in-person supplemental events?

May 15 is the last day to pre-register students for supplemental events. Although all supplemental events are open for pre-registration, know that you will only be able to re-register students in a certain number of events per pattern. Students cannot re-register in Extemp Debate and any other speech event. Students may be reregistered in up to three supplemental speech events total but no more than two events per pattern.

• Pattern A: Extemp Commentary, Original Spoken Word Poetry, Prose

• Pattern B: Expository, Impromptu, Poetry, Storytelling

• OR Extemp Debate

It costs $25 for each supplemental event pre-registration, and entry fees are not refunded if your competitor does not re-register in that event. Choose your pre-registered events wisely! 1-2 pre-registered supplemental entries come with a requirement of 1 day of judging, 3-4 entries require 2 days, 5-6 entries require 3 days, and so on. Supplemental event judging can be purchased for $120 per day.

Visit the schedule for more detailed information. Most students are dropped off at competition venues and picked up at the end of the day. Students will refer to pairings to check their rooms, and tournament officials will be available to help with navigation.

How do we get around?

Transportation is up to each individual program. Most opt for rental cars or buses. We do not provide buses or shuttles between competition venues. A discount code for Hertz is available on our website at www.speechanddebate.org/ nationals

How do ballots work?

All events will use online balloting. To access ballots, judges will log in to Tabroom. com and check Current Ballots & Panels for an assignment before each round. If judges don’t have an assignment but are obligated to judge that day, they will report to the judge pooling room at their competition site. Judges are required to leave written comments on their ballots so students can understand their results and improve. Ballots and the full tournament results packet will be available for students to review after the tournament on Monday, June 20.

If my students are no longer competing Thursday or Friday, how should we spend our remaining time at the tournament?

There are a variety of options for students who are not competing on Thursday and Friday. Most teams choose to watch final rounds. You’re also welcome to do some sightseeing in Louisville. We highly recommend the Muhammad Ali Center and the Louisville Slugger Factory and Museum. Please keep in mind that even if your students are no longer competing, your school’s judges still must fulfill their judging assignments.

Should we attend final rounds even if no one from our school is competing?

The final rounds are an opportunity for you and your students to see the nation’s finest competitors. The rounds are highly enjoyable and educational! Many schools arrive early in order to get the best seats, so plan accordingly if it is important for your team to sit together! Socially distanced seating will be available and masks are required.

Should we attend the awards assembly, even if no one from our school is being recognized?

The Awards Assembly is the “Oscars” of our activity. Help us celebrate the best in the nation and expose your students to the possibilities your program can achieve. The High School Awards Assembly will take place the evening of Friday, June 17. As with final rounds, many schools arrive early to get the best seats, so plan accordingly if it is important for your team to sit together! Encourage any teammates or family cheering you on from home to watch our livestream at live.

speechanddebate.org.

Do all elimination round participants get an award?

Yes, any student who advances to an elimination round in a main event will receive an award. Students in the semifinals and/or finals will be given their award on stage either during the awards ceremony or after their event’s final round. Students who have qualified to the tournament all four years will receive an email in advance and be recognized on stage as four-time qualifiers. Early elimination round awards must be

picked up at awards checkout on Thursday or Friday. Check our website or the Nats22 Guidebook app for more details.

How do I get my judge bond back?

If your school’s judges have met their obligations (reported to all assignments), the $200 judge bond will be refunded. During Nationals registration, each school indicates in Tabroom.com if they would like their judge bond credited to their 2022-2023 NSDA account or returned in the form of a check. Please log in to Tabroom.com to review your selection. All bonds will be processed and returned after Nationals by July 31, 2022.

What should we pack?

Judges should bring a device with internet connectivity so they can access online ballots. Past attendees recommend bringing a reusable water bottle, power strips, and plenty of your favorite snacks. Students dress in competition attire, whatever that means they’re comfortable in! For students and adults, we recommend comfortable shoes and layers to balance the Kentucky summer heat with high AC indoors. Plus, all attendees are required to wear their masks as well as ribbons indicating they are associated with the tournament at all times.

Speech, Debate & Theatre Courses LEARNING CENTER

Understanding Copyright and Compliance

This helpful course explains what copyright means and when there may be exceptions. It discusses Fair Use, when a published work might be in the Public Domain, copyright infringement penalties and much more. Speech and Debate, and Theatre tracks have been added for the 2019-20 school year!

Adjudicating Speech and Debate

Designed to provide adjudicating guidelines, this course identifies the different types of speech and debate events and explains the cultural context necessary to adjudicate. Student performances are included to provide an opportunity to practice adjudicating real performances.

Speech, Debate, Theatre & Academics Association

Objectives:

- Coordinate speech, debate, theatre and academics programs at the state and national levels

- Provide in-service training for high school directors

- Create a network of educators who prepare students for contests and festivals

- Share information, ideas, coaching techniques and contest management skills

- Involve high school coaches in the debate topic selection process

- Provide directors with professional development opportunities

Membership Benefits:

- Insurance coverage, including excess general liability up to $2 million

- Subscription to High School Today, a monthly NFHS publication

- Online access to archives of The Forensic Educator publication

- Member-only online access to 23 NFHS Speech, Debate and Theatre booklets

$20/year | Join at NFHS .org

DEBATE-CENTERED INSTRUCTION

Summer Academy

JULY 19-21, 2022 |

Looking to engage your students and enliven your classroom? Debate-centered instruction (DCI) develops students’ critical thinking and skills, improves student writing, accelerates comprehension of course material, and offers a host of ancillary benefits ranging from improved college readiness to greater retention and completion. And to top it all off, DCI is fun—for students and teachers alike!

Tuition: $400

ONLINE

Attendees will leave ready to use debate-aspedagogy in any class. The Academy will address:

• The fundamentals of argumentation pedagogy

• The socio-emotional learning benefits of oral argumentation training

• A variety of classroom-ready exercises that you can use immediately

• A novel model of controversy that structures productive exchange of arguments

*** Teacher scholarships, school and district discounts available ***

Your tuition covers access to all course materials, live lectures, and exercises (as well as post-event access to recorded sessions), and a professional development certificate provided by the English-Speaking Union. University credit through Wichita State University, KS is available for an extra fee. All enrollees receive a one-semester subscription to Argutopia, a new online platform for arranging and managing classroom debates. Finally, all participants have access to office hours throughout the Fall 2022 semester for individualized coaching and assistance from the training staff. Scholarships are available to qualified enrollees; discounts are available for multiple enrollees from the same institution.

The DCI Academy will feature instruction from national leaders in academic debating, including:

MIKE HARRIS, Executive Director of Ad Astra Debate, Director of Speech & Debate at Wichita Southeast

STEVE JOHNSON, CEO of Argutopia and Director of Debate at the University of Alaska

MEGAN WEST, Manager of Educational Partnerships for Collaborative Classrooms

STEVE FITZPATRICK, Director of Debate at Hackley School, Tarrytown, NY

JAMELLE MCCONNELL-BROWN, Sumner Academy of Arts & Science, NFHS Speech Debate Theater

DR. JOSH ANDERSON, Olathe West High School, 2015 NFHS Debate Coach of the Year

BYRON ARTHUR, President/CEO of The Delores Taylor Arthur School for Young Men

RENEE MOTTER, Air Academy High School, Co-Chair of the NSDA’s Teacher Standards Committee

DAVID ABEL, Founding Partner of Ad Astra Debate, Governor’s Appointee to KSHSAA

PAM MCCOMAS, Emporia State University Education Supervisor, Multiple Teacher Hall of Fames

Examining Endurance:

What Program Stability Means to You

by Amy Seidelman

The NSDA aims to play a powerful role in sustaining speech and debate programs in alignment with two of our strategic focus areas: a relentless focus on generating credibility and stability for speech and debate as a school-based activity and career, and the ability to leverage recognition and membership to inspire decision-makers to prioritize quality speech and debate programs.

This year and next, we are specifically working to deliver and increase awareness of membership benefits that promote program stability. While we survey regularly about membership benefits, resources, and reasons for joining, those individual metrics don’t quite add up to what makes your program tick—and keep ticking, second after second, ideally for years. Our first step was to get your feedback on your program’s stability and what being stable means

to you. In December 2021, more than 800 member advisors supported our effort to gain more knowledge about program stability by responding to a survey.

Defining Stability

The first question: a stable speech and debate program is firmly established and enduring. Using that definition, how would you rate the stability of the speech and debate program at your

school? 22.4% of advisors rated their programs as “very stable.” 32.5% chose “stable,” and nearly 29% said “somewhat stable.” 12.5% rated their programs as “unstable,” and 3.7% felt their program was “very unstable.”

Advisors were also asked to explain why they provided that rating. In this context, programs rated as lower than stable either did not feel they met the “firmly established” threshold—due to being a new coach, or restarting recruitment efforts due to the impacts of COVID-19, or they gave negative predictions about their program’s ability to endure, especially if they were to depart as coach.

In this context, a program’s overall endurance fitness seems to be largely based on consistency— in coaching, in student interest (including interest in competing), in

administrative support, and in funding. A program may have a very dedicated, talented student or a new coach who is willing to attend 20 tournaments in one year, but those instances of stamina alone do not necessarily translate to year-over-year endurance. Programs where the students, coaches, and administrators haven’t fallen into step and agreed on the pace necessary to reach their goals (or what those goals are, period) have coaches who are less likely to express optimism for the program’s future.

It is necessary to point out that COVID-19 influenced stability ratings across the board, due to the implications that virtual tournaments, fewer opportunities for student recruitment, and lapses in funding have on programs. There were some teams that reported thriving in

the online format due to lower costs, but on the whole, stability seems to have suffered over the last two years.

For the purposes of analyzing the results further, we grouped the applicants into three categories: stable (very stable and stable), somewhat stable, and unstable (unstable and very unstable). Close to a third of stable programs were from cities, close to a third were suburban, 15% were rural, and 9% were from towns. Somewhat stable programs were similar, but with more

representation from towns (15%) and slightly less from city, suburban, and rural schools. Unstable programs were slightly more rural (at 18%) with fewer school demographics available in general. 33% of programs rated stable were Title I eligible, while 37% of both somewhat stable and unstable programs were Title I eligible.

Similarities

There are some commonalities between programs no matter how they rated stability-wise.

For example, the same challenges in building and maintaining speech and debate programs emerged among all programs. Recruiting students, retaining students, and lack of additional coaching support were the top challenges across the board (figure 1). These barriers rose above fundraising opportunities, administrative support, coaching limitations, access to tournaments, and access to camps as the top challenges.

Likewise, the factors influencing a school

administrator’s support for the school speech and debate program were consistent across groupings: student interest and demand, parent interest and demand, and the academic benefits of speech and debate (figure 2).

Finally, when asked what NSDA benefits contribute the most to their program stability, answers were consistent among stable and unstable programs. 42% of overall respondents reported that our recognition offerings (which provide motivation for students, points, degrees, honor cords, and student awards) contribute to their stability; another 37% said NSDA resources (including coach onboarding, lesson plans, video practice tools, and monthly resources) are key, and 10% of respondents reported that the National Tournament is important to their continued stability. We also asked what the NSDA could do

FIG. 2 – Top 3 factors influencing an administrator’s support for speech and debate (all stability levels)

1 2 3

STUDENT INTEREST AND DEMAND PARENT INTEREST AND DEMAND ACADEMIC BENEFITS

FIG. 1 – Top 3 challenges in building and maintaining speech and debate programs (all stability levels)

1 2 3

RECRUITING STUDENTS RETAINING STUDENTS LACK OF ADDITIONAL COACHING SUPPORT

FIG. 3 – In your opinion, how likely is it that your school’s program would continue in your absence?

to contribute more to program stability. The most common response, at 28%, was a version of “don’t know”—either because barriers were perceived as internal or respondents couldn’t tie membership benefits to their solutions. Other leading answers included advocacy (20% of respondents), which includes broad advocacy

for the activity as well as direct advocacy regarding program achievements with administrators; resources (17% of respondents), including help with student recruitment and retention and more resources geared toward both new and advanced coaches; and cost (12% of respondents), including support with membership fees, more

grants and scholarships, more free events like the Springboard Series, and reduced Nationals expenses.

Differences

There were some significant differences in the responses of stable and unstable programs. 67% of stable programs

feel that speech and debate would be likely to continue at their school in their absence. That number drops to 31% for “somewhat stable” and 16% for unstable raters (figure 3). This is without doubt one of the leading factors in the overall program stability rating. While the likelihood is higher for stable programs, the fact that only two-thirds of these enduring programs feel their school might maintain the team if they left is discouraging. Stable programs are more likely to have one or more speech and debate classes offered at the school, with fewer than half of unstable programs offering a class (figure 4).

While most programs compete outside the school, a higher percentage of unstable programs do not (figure 5).

Finally, while about 75% of stable programs reported receiving some funding from the school, that number drops to closer to 60% for unstable and somewhat stable programs (figure 6). Because program funding is often expressed as a barrier to program existence or success, we also asked advisors what they’ve tried, what’s

FIG. 4 – Do you offer speech and debate classes?

FIG. 5 – Do you compete outside your school?

worked, and what they might try in terms of fundraising areas.

Tournament hosting was utilized more often by stable and somewhat stable programs as an effective fundraising tool (figure 7).

Three fundraising avenues that are currently underutilized but are of significant interest to coaches (12% or less of survey respondents reported using them, but 50% or more of respondents indicated a willingness to try them) included education/ government grants, NSDA grants, and business sponsorships. More than 40% of respondents indicated a willingness to try securing business sponsorships in the future (figure 8).

We are extremely grateful for the response to this survey. It has informed our planning for membership benefits that can contribute more directly to major barriers, content for professional development, resources, and future issues of Rostrum (including this issue!), and how we can plan to communicate or advocate more effectively with school administrators in the future.

Assistant

WE

STABLE

STABLE

UNSTABLE SOMEWHAT

Amy Seidelman serves as

Executive Director at the NSDA. Background pattern by freepik.com

FIG. 7 – Which sources of funding would you/have you pursued?

FIG. 8 – Which sources

funding

6 – Do you receive funding?

FIG. 7 – Which sources of funding would you/have you pursued?

FIG. 8 – Which sources of funding would you/have you pursued?

California National Debate Institute

5-Week Policy Program

June 19 - July 23, 2022

3-Week Policy Program

June 19 - July 9, 2022

2-Week Public Forum Program

June 19 - July 2, 2022

Ideal Location

Enjoy one of the top universities in the country in Berkeley,beautiful CA

Great Faculty

Getattentionpersonalized from top-tier diverse staff with a very low student-staff ratio

Proven Success

Join CNDI alumni at the highest levels of high school debate and beyond

What Students Say

“An excellent balance between in-depth, nuanced research and rening skills.”

“A healthy mixture of ‘policy’ and ‘critical’ education. I became a substantially more versatile debater.”

“CNDI was easily one of the best experiences of my life.”

“I had the opportunity to meet some of the greatest people, all while living on one of the most fun campuses in the country.”

“We got to work with some of the most brilliant, dynamic minds in debate.”

MEDIA KIT

C H ANDDEBA

EDUCAT I ON DAYspeechanddebateday

Approaching local media to get coverage of your National Speech and Debate Education Day celebration is one of the best ways to spread the word about speech and debate in your community!

National Speech

1. Find contact information for your local media outlets and/or your school paper.

and Debate

• Most news outlets have a tip line or email address that you can send story ideas to. But it also helps if you can reach out to a real person, including a reporter or producer! Try connecting with them on social media by tagging them in posts about your celebration.

Do you have a favorite reporter whose email address you can find?

Most of the time, you’ll be able to find their contact information on their organization’s website. Try sending them a personal email with the press release attached!

CONNECT WITH US ON SOCIAL MEDIA!

Use our press release template to highlight how your school is celebrating. Make sure to include information on the date, time, and location of any events you’re planning to hold.

Make sure your NSDE Captains, coaches, or students are ready to talk about why speech and debate is important to them. (Hint: download our Speech and Debate Fact Sheet at www.SpeechAndDebateDay.org!)

Education Day is dedicated to celebrating educators, inspiring students, and transforming tomorrow. It’s a day to show everyone how speech and debate is truly a superpower! We’ve captured just a few of the ways teams and individuals across the country chose to recognize the day in March. Be sure to visit SpeechAndDebateDay.org for additional ideas and resources to start planning next year’s celebration!

Share any articles or news stories that you get published with the NSDA by tagging us @speechanddebate or emailing social@speechanddebate.org

GOOD LUCK!

“Did you know that nationally 98% of high school debaters go on to attend college?” The Richmond Forum (VA) honored its 2021 alums on Twitter.

debate to retaining that confidence the

KIMBERLY LEE

“I love speech and debate because it gives me a place where I have a family. It gives me opportunities that I wouldn’t have had without the way the program has shaped me.”

Summit High School, New Jersey

2018 Dramatic Interpretation champion

“I love speech and debate because it gives me an opportunity to meet new friends, learn more about myself, and get more involved in my community.”

–Juliet

–Emily Dennery

–Caitlin Marsch

Additional free resources, including posters, fundraising tips, templates, and more are

“I love speech and debate because it gives me the opportunity to express myself in a way no other extracurricular activity does.”

–Ragina

Macias

For the seventh year, the U.S. Senate recognized NSDE Day by passing Senate Resolution 530. The resolution was co-sponsored by a bipartisan group of 13 senators from across the country. Download a printable copy for your school or classroom at SpeechAndDebateDay.org

tips, templates, and more are available at www.SpeechAndDebateDay.org

www.SpeechAndDebateDay.org

#WeAreSpeechAndDebate

Chiawana High School (WA) shared student stories online. Parker Alvarez has been waiting to join the speech and debate team since the sixth grade!

Members of the Davenport West (IA) squad gathered to celebrate the day.

This activity changed my life by teaching me how to produce and write and direct and helped me achieve my dream of becoming an actor.”

Kalen Allen | Actor, Writer, and 2022 NSDE Day Spokesperson | Class of 2014, Sumner Academy (KS)

“I love speech because it gives opportunity new friends, about myself, involved in my

–Juliet Geffre

“I love speech and debate because it taught me to speak up about what matters, while retaining that eloquence and confidence even when there isn’t the heat of competition.”

Geffre

SPEECH AND DEBATE HAS HONESTLY CHANGED MY ENTIRE LIFE. I WAS ACTUALLY MUTE WHEN I WAS YOUNGER AND SPEAKING OUT TERRIFIED ME. AND I WAS TOLD TO JOIN SPEECH AND DEBATE.

www.speechanddebate.org/

Deadline to host and report is June 1, 2022.

Earn up to $5,000 for YOUR team!

Big Questions is a debate-format grant for students to gain experience and teams to raise funds. Big Questions is designed to advance a student’s knowledge, comfort, and interest in learning more about the intersections of science and philosophy.

Choose from any of these topics:

• Resolved: On balance, societies benefit from religious belief and practice.

• Resolved: Mathematics was discovered, not invented.

• Resolved: Objective morality exists.

Online Speech Festivals Offer DEI Themed Events

by Juliette Reyes

Equity is among the core values of the NSDA and its mission to grow the activity of speech and debate. The principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) matter more than ever. In turn, they have pushed new initiatives for increasing access and deliberative dialogue within speech and debate communities.

Among them, the New Jersey Speech and Debate League (NJSDL), led by President David Yastremski, decided to start a new series of DEI themed Online Speech Festivals dedicated to public speaking and dramatic presentations for middle school and high school students.

“We saw a need for flexible events during the pandemic,” David explains. “We discussed themes to provide an opportunity for new schools that may be looking for ways to connect our events to their curricular goals as well. If schools are having students write speeches during MLK Jr. Day as an assignment, then

giving them an opportunity to present [those speeches] may hook them into our activity and encourage further involvement.”

According to Ray Shay, a key organizer of the Online Speech Festivals and a coach at Princeton Academy, this year’s events have included a variety of DEI related themes: “Honoring Veterans Day” for the November festival, “Honoring the Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.” during the January festival, and “Celebrating Women’s History Month” for the March festival.

Students at the NJSDL Online Speech Festivals had the opportunity to compete in one of three special events: Pro Con Challenge, Prepared Prompt, and Original Poetry. Each of these events offered students a way to engage in discussions about important social issues.

For instance, in Pro Con Challenge during the November festival, students wrote and presented cases

on whether or not the U.S. Military Health System should be privatized, allowing students to understand one facet of the complexity and struggle veterans face on a daily basis.

In January, for Prepared Prompt, students wrote and presented an original speech based on a quote from Martin Luther King Jr., which helped spark students’ creativity and overall interest in social justice.

Finally, during the March festival, students in Original Poetry wrote and presented poetry based on Women’s History Month and women’s empowerment.

As a result, the NJSDL’s Online Speech Festivals have not only exposed students to real world issues but also fostered creative communication.

As David states, “I like the thematic approach that promotes new opportunities for students to use their voice in creative ways. I really believe that our activity is poised in a unique place to connect with a variety of curricular areas—reading, writing, cultural studies, etc. If schools are seeking ways to connect diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in the classroom, then our activity can provide an avenue for them.”

“I like video tournaments, and I like Pro Con [Challenge]. I get to see from both points of view and develop my own point of view. The themed events made me think about things I wouldn’t normally think about, like protest movements.”

Reena Cheng, Hudson Arts & Science Charter Middle School, NJ

Given the NJSDL’s successful festival series, we decided to ask David Yastremski if he had any additional words of wisdom for teachers, coaches, or anyone in the speech and debate community who would be interested in starting a similar event series or running a onetime DEI festival.

Can you describe an initial challenge you faced when organizing these events?

David: Getting the word out. Initially, we wanted to advertise in publications that could reach new school districts and classrooms. I quickly found that would incur some major costs that our league couldn’t take on at the moment. We will definitely look to expand our reach next year.

What was the main goal you were striving for in running these tournaments?

David: We found that middle school students really took to the online tournament experience, while our high school teams became quickly disillusioned with them. Second, we heard of students who could not participate at in-

person events because of scheduling conflicts. By running these events asynchronously during the week, we were able to attract some students who might not otherwise find an opportunity to compete.

What could be changed or improved with the Online Speech Festivals model?

David: More advertising and exposure to encourage more schools to participate. We decided to try three events this year. The league learned a lot, so it will give us significant conversation to continue building the program toward new goals and opportunities.

What would you say to a district that is trying to host their own events similar to this?

David: Have someone in your leadership team take complete ownership of it—particularly someone with clear connections to the middle school community. Ray Shay has been vital to taking this idea and making it work. An initiative like this needs its own tournament director who doesn’t have other league obligations and initiatives to manage or draw their attention.

Discussing DEI related topics can be difficult because it requires one to venture into the unknown or the uncomfortable. However, that’s why it is critical that we do our best both as advocates and as educators to communicate, learn, and improve the way

we go about fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion.

“DEI includes promoting avenues for every individual to have the opportunity to perform at their very best—no matter their location, situation, identity, or technology,” David concludes.

The National Speech & Debate Association has commissioned a series of free resources to support your efforts to make your classroom, practices, and tournaments more equitable. Thank you to the members of NSDA coaches’ caucuses and other community members for their significant contributions in developing these materials! Download or access the collection online by visiting www.speechanddebate.org/equity

Juliette Reyes serves as an intern for the NSDA.

“We produce more than 30,000 awards annually— more than 3,000 for the National Tournament alone. Imagine what we can do for your school or tournament!”

—

NATIONAL SPEECH & DEBATE ASSOCIATION

TROPHY SHOP

Order tournament trophies, school awards, plaques, medals, and more from the National Speech & Debate Association’s Trophy Shop!

We have thousands to choose from, or you can create customized awards for your event! As a member, you have access to wholesale prices and early invoicing.

Learn more at www.speechanddebate.org/trophyshop

Chad Wagner, NSDA Trophy Shop Manager

Stop Talking. Start Speaking.

1 & 2 Week Sessions - July 5 - 19 Back in Person in 2022!

A Different Kind of Camp

At Southwest Speech and Debate, we believe that community is the thing that makes this activity better. We believe that Speech and Debate can be a home for everybody, and enable people to raise their voice, and speak their truth. We pride ourselves in providing a low-cost, high-quality camp experience.

Come join us, and find out how you can stop talking, and start speaking!

Sessions and Pricing

*Prices listed are for campers who choose to stay in the dorms.

Presented in collaboration with:

Free Speech and Debate Scrimmages

Finish Strong

The Springboard Series is complete for 2021-2022! This year, we offered 22 free competition opportunities to students— reaching 2,554 unique students and 304 schools .

Springboard provides a variety of opportunities including free online after-school scrimmages and weekend tournaments. In April, we also hosted a series of free webinars (sidebar) . To access the recordings, visit www.speechanddebate.org/ springboard-series .

Thanks to the generosity of The Julia Burke Foundation , the NSDA launched the Springboard Series in 2020, and we’re excited to announce the return of these events in 2022-2023!

Webinar Recordings

Rhetorical Speech 101

with Sahiba Tandon | Whether you’re just starting out or could use a refresher on the basics, Rhetorical Speech 101 is sure to get you up to speed! Learn more about Expository Speaking, Informative Speaking, and Original Oratory from a national champion.

How to Compete in Pro Con Challenge

with Bill Harris | Pro Con Challenge is a one-of-a-kind public address speech event. If you have students in your program who want to know more about this fun way to explore debate topics, check out this webinar aimed at coaches, students, advisors, and judges!

How to Judge Congressional Debate for Beginners

with David Long | If your speech and debate program is new to Congress, or if you want to provide your program’s Congress judges with an additional opportunity for training and development, this is the webinar for you! Coach David Long explains the basics and provides a thorough explanation of this exciting event.

Five Tips for Starting a Speech and Debate Program

with Raymond Shay | Coach Raymond Shay distills his years of experience with both middle school and high school speech and debate programs into five tips that you can follow as you start, or grow, your speech and debate program.

2022-2023 scrimmage dates will be released by August 1

Testimonials

Springboard offers a lowstakes, high-impact way for coaches to recruit, train, and expose new students and judges to competitions. Here’s what participating coaches are saying!

“Online tournaments have allowed debaters from across the country to compete against each other, bridging the gap of financially fortunate teams to those who are grateful for simply access to the internet. Springboard tournaments are the single greatest low-stake tool coaches and debaters have to hone key skills.”

— Michael Convey (Illinois)

To learn more about the Springboard Series, visit www.speechanddebate.org/springboard-series.

“CAM High School has done about nine of the Springboard scrimmages. They have been great for our speech and debate program. We have a limited budget—70% of our budget comes from fundraisers the students do during the year. So these free tournaments are a blessing.” — Kirk Kelloway (Iowa)

“Thank you for these scrimmages! Our team is learning from the feedback and low-stress competition.”

— Leilani McHugh (California)

FRANCES HAUGEN

Whistleblowing and The Facebook Papers

by Annie Reisener

On October 4, 2021, NSDA alum

Frances Haugen appeared on 60 Minutes, revealing herself as the former employee who blew the whistle on Facebook for misleading the public. On October 5, she testified before the Senate Commerce subcommittee and explained how the documents she disclosed demonstrated that Facebook concealed their knowledge of the negative effects associated with the platform and called for Congressional oversight of the company. Overnight, she became a public figure subject to mass speculation and personal attacks.

Frances is an algorithmic specialist and has worked at Yelp, Google, and alongside fellow NSDA alum Ben Silberman at Pinterest. She joined Facebook in 2019 to lead the civic misinformation team. Her focus was varied. She worked in counter-espionage, which sought to understand and describe harmful networks like QAnon. She concentrated on civic integrity in the leadup to the 2020 presidential election and aimed to protect people from misinformation.

Almost immediately after joining Facebook, Frances learned she would be working on misinformation outside the United States. It was through those efforts that she first got a sense that Facebook was prioritizing profits over the safety of its users.

“For the majority of places in the world, Facebook is the internet,” Frances says. She believes this means the company has a higher obligation of care. In many places around the world, Facebook provides free access to the company’s platform but charges users for access to the broader internet.

Frances quickly learned that Facebook had not thought through the consequences of this strategy. The limited access only to Facebook chokes a free and open internet before it can form. Frances says that the lack of access to an open internet outside the platform makes misinformation and bias on Facebook even more dangerous.

EngagementBased Ranking

Most of us have some understanding of the almighty “algorithm” on social media. Rather than offering our feeds in chronological order, Facebook and Instagram

default to using algorithms to show us information they believe is most relevant to our interests. This process is called engagement-based ranking—platforms rely on our interaction with content to determine what we see on our feeds.

Facebook views engagement-based ranking as critical to increased corporate profits, but as Facebook is aware, this comes at a societal cost. When Facebook feeds us information tailored to our interests or beliefs, we spend more time using the platform, and Facebook reaps additional profits in the form of ad revenue. Unfortunately, the easiest way to generate engagement is to incentivize divisive content.

“The dangers of engagement-based ranking are that Facebook knows that content that elicits an extreme reaction from you is more likely to get a click, a comment, a reshare,” Frances testified. “They know that other people

will produce more content if they get the likes and comments and reshares. They prioritize content in your feed, so you will give little hits of dopamine to your friends, so they will create more content. And they have run experiments on people—producer-side experiments—where they have confirmed this.”

Facebook uses artificial intelligence (AI) to drive the algorithm and to find misinformation, but these efforts are woefully inadequate.

Internal Facebook studies released by Frances reveal the company captures “as little as 3-5% of hate and about [0.6%] of [violence and incitement] on Facebook despite being the best in the world at it.”

A New York Times review of the documents released by Frances found that 87% of Facebook’s budget for combating misinformation is spent

in the United States, yet only approximately 10% of Facebook’s daily active users reside in North America. In fact, integrity systems for detecting misinformation and extreme content do not operate in many world languages.

In her testimony, Frances highlighted the way Facebook was “fanning ethnic violence” in places like Ethiopia where in October of 2019, a series of viral Facebook posts led to the deaths of around 70 people. Ethiopia, with a population of 100 million people and six languages, was being monitored by Facebook’s integrity systems, which only supported two of the languages. This meant the AI was trying to sift through hate speech in languages it did not understand. Facebook has since added several additional languages, but they came under fire again when reporting by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and The Observer in early 2022 found that

I don’t think I could have ever done as well

[preparing for 60 Minutes] if I hadn’t both done and coached debate.” — Frances Haugen (’02)

Facebook continues to fail to catch content that incites violence despite being aware of the severity of the situation since January of 2019.

Young Users

The documents Frances released also show how the platform is harming vulnerable groups in the United States. They indicate Facebook is studying kids as young as eight to learn how to market to them while allowing Instagram users to create second accounts, or “finstas,” they can hide from parents. According to Frances’ testimony, Facebook understands that problematic use peaks at age 14, and of 14 year olds, only 5-6% have the self awareness to understand they are addicted to Instagram because they selfidentify that (a) they don’t have control over their usage and (b) it is materially harming their health or their schoolwork. Facebook’s internal studies indicated that 32% of girls said Instagram made them feel worse about their bodies, 13% said it worsens suicidal thoughts, and 17% of teen girls said that Instagram contributes

to their eating disorders. From documented experiments recreating user pathways, Facebook also knows that the algorithm can lead young people to anorexia content.

Facebook kept this information about the health and safety of young people from the public while pursuing a new platform called Instagram Kids for tweens ages 10-12, which would allow them to expand their reach to a new, even younger audience. Instagram Kids was paused in light of the information Frances brought forward. In testimony to Congress, Facebook’s Global Head of Safety pushed back against claims that Facebook exploits children for profits and declined to share how long Facebook would pause plans for Instagram Kids.

First-Hand Experience

Frances has seen the dangers Facebook presents to its users play out in her own life. She originally accepted the offer to work at Facebook after a friend of hers had been radicalized online.

“It’s very easy to talk

about misinformation as an abstract thing, but when we lose our ability to have shared facts and conversations, that alienation tears us apart,” she says.

Frances believed her position offered a chance to prevent others from experiencing the same loss she had. While others may not be similarly positioned, she believes there are strategies anyone can employ to try to counter misinformation in their personal circle.

“It’s very easy to be angry at people who believe conspiracy theories, and it is much more constructive to remember that they are victims. They are being targeted, and not everyone is being targeted equally. Starting from that place of empathy is the most important thing,” she says.

very rarely change their ideas if they feel judged; the closer an idea is to someone’s identity, the harder it is for them to change that idea. The way you can help guide someone back to our common reality is by listening with an open heart and helping them to connect the values that they care about with that common reality. If you ask someone to give up their identity for the truth, people would rather believe false reality.”

The Breaking Point

In the leadup to the 2020 election, Frances’ team was tasked with setting up safeguards to prevent the spread of misinformation. But right after the election, Facebook disbanded the civic integrity team and used justifications about free speech to remove the safe guards that were in place before the election. Then came the insurrection on January 6, 2021.

“Facebook changed those safety defaults in the run up to the election because they knew [the prior default settings] were dangerous,” Frances says. “Because they wanted that growth back, they wanted the acceleration of the

“That’s actually something I don’t think we get taught enough in debate. We are taught that logic and reason should win the day when often, if you want to actually help someone heal, you have to start from a place of empathy. People

platform back after the election, they returned to their original defaults. The fact that they had to break the glass on January 6 and turn them back on, I think that’s deeply problematic.” Frances wasn’t the only one seeing the problems. All of the leaders of her redistributed team quit in the following six-week span. The mass exodus made her realize the problems she was seeing weren’t imagined.

Going Public

At that point, Frances realized Facebook needed help from the outside and began grappling with what that might look like. Becoming a whistleblower was

never her first choice. “It’s never plan A. It’s plan C or D or F because it’s terrifying.”

Frances had tried to raise concerns when she discovered issues but says Facebook “didn’t act because the definitions of what was dangerous were designed to keep the computers safe, not people.”

Ultimately, Frances chose to come forward to alert the public to the dangers of Facebook rather than allow the platform to continue to operate unchecked.

“Today, Facebook shapes our perception of the world by choosing the information we see,” she explains. “Even those who don’t use Facebook are impacted by the majority who do. A company with such frightening influence over so many people, over their deepest thoughts, feelings, and behavior, needs real oversight. But Facebook’s closed design means it has no real oversight. Only Facebook knows how it personalizes your feed for you. At other large tech companies like Google, any independent researcher can download [the

company search results] from the internet and write papers about what they find, and they do. But Facebook hides behind walls that keep researchers and regulators from understanding the true dynamics of their system... When tobacco companies claimed that filtered cigarettes were safer for consumers, scientists could independently invalidate these marketing messages and confirm that, in fact, they posed a greater threat to human health. The public cannot do the same with Facebook. We are given no other option than to take their marketing messages on blind faith. Not only does the company hide most of its own data, my disclosure has proved that when Facebook is directly asked questions as important as, how do you impact the health and safety of our children, they choose to mislead and misdirect. Facebook has not earned our blind faith.”

Frances filed a whistleblower complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Then she came forward as the whistleblower and became the face of the Facebook Papers.

Frances attended Iowa City West High School, competing in Policy and Lincoln-Douglas Debate.

The Role of Speech and Debate

Becoming a public figure presented its own challenges, but ones she was well-suited to face. “I didn’t get connected with a good communications team until right before the first article came out, and we had to tape the 60 Minutes piece the same week.” This left Frances with very little time to prepare to become a public figure.

“We did these sessions that anyone who has done debate would be very familiar with. People fed me questions, like practicing crossexamination, and I’d try to answer them. Then a group of people would critique what you would say and how you could have been more clear. That’s one of the things I’m super grateful for; I don’t think I could have ever done as well if I hadn’t both done and coached debate. Through coaching, you learn a lot about communicating and how to explain how to communicate. One of

NSDA

the things I had to do was teach 14 year olds how to make a sound byte, because judges can only write some things down. I’ve been told by journalists that I can speak in succinct sentences that have a point, which makes them easier to include.”

Frances competed at Iowa City West High School in Policy and Lincoln-Douglas Debate. She recognizes the influence of debate on her journey in a few ways. “We spent a lot of time talking about structures of government, how to have a society or democracy—a lot of the things that motivated me to come forward. We can’t have a functioning democracy where people don’t understand how the information they consume is selected, where people don’t get to make conscious choices about the information they consume or be aware of biases. When that information is controlled, people are manipulated.

I am most grateful for my education via LD for giving me the opportunity to

really reflect on what democracy is and what does that democracy mean. I’m very grateful for my time with Policy because there were many kritiks of the nature of power or power dynamics. A lot of what I’m most concerned about Facebook is their ways of controlling the information the public knows about how Facebook operates and the consequences of those decisions.”

Moving Forward

In light of Frances coming forward, Facebook released statements downplaying the documents and also called into question Frances’ experience and knowledge of the matters at hand.

Despite their response to the Facebook Papers, Frances says she would return to the company if she could. “If I could go work at Facebook tomorrow, I would because we have to solve these problems. I earnestly believe there are millions or tens of millions of lives on the line in some of the most fragile places in

the world in the next 20 years. We cannot afford to wait longer to fix these problems. Facebook has tried to trick us into believing that the argument we’re having right now is about censorship. But it is about product choices Facebook made that were in their business interest. You could radically reduce misinformation just by fixing problems with amplifying the most extreme content. Facebook has gotten very good at manipulating the public. The longer we fight about censorship instead of focusing on transparency, the longer Facebook will get away with what they’ve been doing.”

Frances continues to advocate for accountability and transparency in social media. She believes that we can have social media we enjoy that brings out the best in humanity. Frances has a Facebook account.

Annie

Reisener

serves as Director of Membership at the NSDA.

MARCHING (and dancing) FORWARD

by Eli Woody

The state of Alabama has a deep, rich history of discourse—of speaking and debating. Most notably in the state’s history was the “Selma March,” led by Martin Luther King Jr. The march was a turning point in the civil rights movement and came after weeks of unrest about the unjust daily lives of Black Americans as well as their right to vote.

This passion for fair, equitable treatment and justice remains as strong today as the Edmond Pettus Bridge. It lives on, specifically, at George Washington Carver High School in Montgomery, Alabama. There, a speech and debate coach named Cassie Rockette-Rogers is empowering young, Black voices to speak up and be heard, in the same way as the voices before them did.

Cassie, originally from the neighboring state of Mississippi, now lives and teaches in Montgomery. She teaches English at both George Washington Carver and Troy University. “I love African American history, yoga, family, hiking, and teaching. I have a wonderful husband, two beautiful daughters,

and a very intelligent and handsome grandson,” she says. Additionally, she adds that speech and debate is one of her many passions.

Cassie has taught at George Washington Carver for a total of three years; this year would be her fourth. She notes that she personally did not compete in speech and debate in high school, but did take a speech course in college at The University of Mississippi, which helped her build confidence for what she does now—teaching.

Cassie recalls. “They did not like speaking in front of people. Also, when working on argumentative essays, they lacked some of the components that are needed to conduct credible research and were not necessarily proficient in stating their argument or proving their point.”

“I became interested in coaching speech and debate when I noticed a significant number of students needed help in reading comprehension,”

Naturally, a speech and debate program was a perfect fit.

Just as Cassie is new to coaching, the speech and debate program at George Washington Carver is still quite new and still growing.

“In the short time that I have been teaching at the school, a lot has changed,” Cassie reflects. “When I started the speech and debate team my first time [at George Washington Carver], I was not as active as I am now. Now, there is a certain level of intensity because I see the greater need for speech and debate, particularly in the demographics I deal with.”

time to her students, both during school and after school.

This approach is both notable and noble. Rather than pretending to know it all, as a show of authority, this collectivist culture is proven to build relationships with students more effectively than assertive, authoritative approaches. And it is not just proven by research; it is working on the ground, there in Montgomery.

George Washington Carver’s student population is rich in diversity but unfortunately underserved in terms of everyday resources. “The pandemic really stretched some students academically and, unfortunately, some fell further behind,” she continues. “I am more hungry [now] for my students to learn, and I want even more to equip them to overcome obstacles.” She is devoting an increasing amount of her

While American history—specifically in the South—is full of many prolific Black speakers and debaters, the history of Black coaches in speech and debate is not as abundant. Just as in education holistically, speech and debate programs are predominantly led by white coaches.

Cassie considers why this might be. “There is this misconception that a certain race is more prone to ‘run’ this kind of club. At my school, I have educated some of my fellow educators on what [speech and debate] is and how it is run.” She even elaborated that parents have asked what the activity is and the need to explain the activity to them, as well.

Culturally, however, the relationship between the Black community and education is fraught. Cassie adds to that story: “Another reason so many of us automatically think we lack the skill set to coach and teach is because we are just intimidated by the predominantly white schools,” she explains.

This understanding of the personal, lived experience of being a Black student and being a Black speech and debate competitor is unparalleled. Even beyond this,

She points out that she has a TikTok account and frequently makes dance videos with her students, because it is a way to build community in the spaces students feel most seen.

“I am a novice coach, just as my students are novices when it comes to debating. We are learning together.”

“When we are going to tournaments to debate, I always have to give my team a talk about what to expect, what we are going to see, how we measure up, and how we will compete, looking different.”

Cassie’s ability to connect extends to areas where many teachers wouldn’t dare to enter— like TikTok.

Cassie Rockette-Rogers, shown far right, with her first squad in 2018.

As a result, she says, “When I host something, I get good return [from interested students] because students want to be around teachers who truly identify with them and show that they care about them.”

Cassie says recruiting new students from English classes has proven to be highly effective. Additionally, her

administration—specifically principal Gary Hall—is supportive of the growth and survival of the speech and debate program. She notes that her assistant coach, Ms. Jefferson, is excellent in recruiting. “Without her, I would not have been able to be as successful as I am. When I started the debate team the first time around,

she was there. And now that I have started it again, she is there. She announces it in her classes and asks students in her hallway if they would be interested. It is definitely a team effort.”

Looking back on her “march” to create a speech and debate program, the theme of collective action is most notable. Cassie notes

the importance of the Black coach mentorship program and the African American/Black Coaches’ Caucus. A few coaches specifically come to mind for her. Donald Broussard, Jr., was a “saving grace” and intervened to help mentor her. Jay Rye and Alex Brubaker (The Montgomery Academy, Alabama) were extremely helpful and even came to help the George Washington Carver students.

To administrators in schools both with and without a speech and debate program, Cassie calls for support of coaches and teams. “Get behind them and push them to keep going; provide funds, resources, and give them a place alongside sports and other popular clubs,” she says. To other new coaches, she says, “Pace yourself. Do not try to do too much at any one time.”

In closing, Cassie says, “I leave you all with this quote from Maya Angelou: ‘Nothing will work unless you do.’ Especially us Black coaches, we must continue to work.”

Eli Woody is a former twodiamond coach and the Membership and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Coordinator at the NSDA.

The George Washington Carver High School speech and debate team in 2021.

What do you do to support your students outside of the activity?

How do you build a sense of team and community?

Bill Teter: I’m fortunate to have a tournament speech elective class, so our team is together every day. Our team

compiled

A Strong Ohana (Family)

motto is “Lift as you rise.”

My speech coach (Cliff Roche, Oceanside High School) taught us that we had two jobs and an obligation if we were going to be on his team: Get ready to compete, and get someone else ready. And the obligation? Have fun doing it. I’ve tried to instill that same ethic in my classes/teams

Manager

over the years. I try to train them to be coaches themselves. I’ve worked hard to maintain a connection with our team alumni. Last summer, I put out a general call to as many of them as I could find and asked them if they could send a message to my current team about their speech and debate experience and how it had helped them. I received a number of messages (and two videos), which I was able to share with the team at the beginning of the year so they could see they were part of a living, ongoing tradition.

Kapualani Reeves: I am very passionate about encouraging leadership in my team members. Our team is led by a

board of student leaders who facilitate practices, workshops, a recruitment camp, social events, and so much more for their peers. Our program is intended to be student led so that they can be the drivers of their own experience and serve as quality role models for up and coming speech and debate members. We refer to our team as a Spamily (speech and debate family)—I promise it’s not because of our affinity for the canned good! Just like any family, we have squabbles and challenges, but at the end of the day, the structure and climate we’ve created is one of support and having each other’s backs. The goal is to influence character so when

Members of the Hawai’i District Committee spoke with us about upholding time honored traditions and finding creative ways to support speech and debate students despite recent challenges.

HAWAI’I:

by Lauren McCool,

of District and Tournament Services

Members of the Hawai’i District at their state debate tournament in 2019.

they leave our program, not only are they effective communicators but good and industrious people as well.

Michael Lau: Often my alumni come back to either coach or judge. They travel with us and spend time with the students at the tournament. The connections that span across generations of a team are vital to a successful team.

How has COVID-19 impacted your competitive season(s)? Please share both the good and the bad!

Carol Halbur: In some ways, the asynchronous online speech tournaments actually helped my team because all the work was done ahead of time, so on the Saturday of the tournament, there was nothing the students had to worry about. However, I am glad that this year we went to a synchronous speech tournament.

Karen Miyakado (chair): We’re very grateful that NSDA Campus has provided us the vehicle to continue to conduct our tournaments. It’s afforded the students the opportunity to continue their participation in this valuable educational activity. This venue has let us witness the cordialness

Sharing the Aloha Spirit

Kapualani Reeves: A traditional Hawaiian saying goes, “E lei kau, e lei ho’oilo i ke aloha”—“Love is worn like a wreath through the summers and the winters.” For several decades, the Hawai’i Speech League has brought leis to adorn and honor competitors and staff at the NSDA National Tournament. In fact, this practice has become so natural that we can’t quite remember when exactly it first began. In Hawaiian culture, the head and shoulders are considered sacred parts of the body to be respected by others, which is why leis are mainly worn around the neck or head. These floral garlands have become synonymous with Hawai’i and sharing the aloha spirit. One should always consider the purpose behind why a lei is being presented and should hold positive thoughts while making or gifting a lei. There are many different styles of leis and using different flowers or greenery can showcase different meanings. Leis have been presented to important leaders and historical figures. In fact, in 1965, a delegation from Hawa’i flew to Selma, Alabama, and presented a lei to Martin Luther King Jr. to honor his work and showcase solidarity for the Civil Rights Movement. The Hawai’i Speech League looks forward to continuing this time honored tradition of sharing the aloha spirit with the special presentation of leis.

among everyone in the round due to our room checks prior to the rounds starting (which would not have been possible in regular tournaments). It’s wonderful to see the students enjoying the competitions and camaraderie as they chat before the rounds. The students and judges have assisted each other with any technical issues they may be having. Very often when I enter to do a room check, I’ll find a student helping a judge understand the event and explaining the judging process to them. Recently, quite a few of the teams have begun competing in tournaments from their schools, which affords them the opportunity for team bonding. As one coach mentioned, “It’s heartwarming to hear the students in the hallways laughing and talking between rounds.”

What is a successful fundraising project/ event that someone in your district has done?

Kapualani Reeves: PreCOVID, our team’s season

Meet the Committee

culminated with a speech and debate showcase that served as our team’s main fundraiser. We would reserve our school’s auditorium and sell tickets to family and friends. The showcase often highlighted our seniors as well as our competitors bound for the National Tournament. We’d give the performers the star treatment by taking creative headshots of them to use for marketing materials. The event would include a mix of interpretation and public speaking categories and would also feature a monster debate, our

unique version of SPAR where the audience was asked to contribute resolutions. This fundraiser also served as a wonderful recruitment tool, exposing new students to our wonderful world. The pandemic forced us to pivot, and we moved from the showcase serving as a fundraising event to being one of celebration. In May 2020, we hosted our first online live showcase using an app called Crowdcast. We had family, friends, and alumni tune in from all over the world to support our seniors who were not able to participate in their

final state tournament and national qualifier. My favorite thing about the showcase is spotlighting our team members and being able to share their talent in such a special way.

Bill Teter: In December 2019, my team, with the help of our local Barnes & Noble Bookstore, set up a Christmas gift-wrapping table. In addition, students made individual bookmarks for customers and read to young children in the little kids’ part of the store. We set up a basket for topic suggestions, which students used to create and deliver impromptu speeches.

We’re proud of our ethnically and racially diverse student competitors from the public and private schools. We have a very strong Ohana (family) among the students and coaches.” — Karen Miyakado

BILL TETER University

Laboratory School

CAROL HALBUR Punahou School

MICHAEL LAU Kahuku High & Intermediate School

KAPUALANI REEVES Kamehameha Schools

KAREN MIYAKADO Radford High School

THE ONE AND ONLY KIND OF ITS

The National Civics & Debate Championship will showcase a next level synthesis of civics education and debate competition. This triathlon-style tournament will thoroughly challenge students' civics knowledge, debate skills, and endurance.

NOVEMBER 11-13, 2022 ORLANDO, FL

www.floridaeducationfoundation.org

HUNDREDS OF TEAMS WILL ENTER.

EIGHT WILL WIN TRIPS TO THE FINALS IN NEW YORK CITY.

ONLY ONE WILL TAKE HOME THE $10,000 GRAND PRIZE.

The Brewer Foundation and New York University proudly announce the 22nd annual International Public Policy Forum (IPPF) – the only competition that gives high school students around the world the opportunity to engage in written and oral debates on issues of public policy.

This international contest is open to all schools – public and private – for free High school teams compete for awards and scholarships The top eight teams earn an all-expenses-paid trip to the IPPF Finals in New York City, where the IPPF World Champion wins a $10,000 grand prize!

To learn more about the 2022-23 competition, visit www.ippfdebate.com today!

Register to compete by October 14, 2022.

Prepare a 2,800 word qualifying round essay on the 2022-23 topic Essays are due October 18, 2022

The Top 64 teams will be announced in early November Those teams advance into a single-elimination, written debate competition, with teams volleying essays back and forth via email

Judges review the essays and the field is narrowed from 64 teams to 32, 16 and then eight.

The "Elite Eight" teams earn an all-expenses-paid trip to the IPPF Finals in New York City, where they compete in oral debates for the chance to be named the IPPF World Champion!

GEARING UP FOR LARGER TOURNAMENTS IN WORLD SCHOOLS DEBATE

by Cameron Kettles and Miles Wang

For many teams, the second semester is focused primarily on preparing for and competing at larger tournaments, including state, district, and national tournaments. Here are some preparation tips for World Schools teams at these events.

Ensure there is a healthy team dynamic. For competitions like the NSDA National Tournament, teams are often formed across the district, meaning it may be a completely new team from the rest of the season. Creating a healthy team dynamic is central to performance. Make sure there is time for meet-ups (whether virtual or safe, in-person hangouts), and proactively prevent conflicts among teammates by encouraging open and honest communication.

Hold practice rounds with other teams. Internal practice rounds are always great to hold, but the best relative gauge of performance is to hold practice rounds against other districts and teams. Feel free to reach out to debaters across the state or country to set up a time and platform for a practice round. You don’t have to know them—just introduce yourself, your team, and tell them you would be interested in scheduling a practice round in order to improve. These rounds should have thirdparty observers (can be coaches or experienced debaters) to offer

feedback to both teams after the debate has finished.

Another tip is to do practice impromptu rounds with less preparation time. The USA Debate team’s experience at the IDW (opposite page) forced us to prepare the same amount of content in 45 minutes. For future rounds, that gives us more time to spend on round vision and developing our late-round strategy with refutation, frontlines, and weighing. You can even use a 15-minute prep period to sharpen impromptu skills. That’s the time used in some parliamentary formats.

Set a rigid schedule for preparation. It is extremely easy to delay prepared motion preparation until the week before the tournament—and the time will pass quickly with all the events that happen at the end of the school year! In order to prevent this, teams should set a schedule as soon as the motions are released. This schedule should ensure that all motions are done well in advance of the tournament so revisions can be made (one to two weeks should suffice), and set meeting dates that don’t conflict with any teammates’ schedules. It should also include meetings to brainstorm case outlines and deadlines for when delegation of argument writing should be finished.

Target weaknesses. As you do practice rounds and prepare for motions, you will notice individual and team weaknesses. It is important

DEBATE

to reflect upon these, which can range from poor word economy to not enough weighing. Have each teammate write up both personal and team weaknesses and discuss as a group how you can tackle each one in the road leading up to the tournament.

Maintain momentum over the summer. The trope of forgetting everything you learned in your academic classes over the summer can apply to debate as well, unless you are careful! In World Schools Debate, it is heavily recommended that you keep your skills fresh. This does not mean keeping the same intense practice schedule as throughout the normal year— please enjoy your summer! However, you can do simple things such as watching WSDC rounds online or reviewing your flows. Summer work can be a time for filling in content-knowledge gaps. Even further, summer debate camps are a great way to improve in the matter of a few weeks with help from experts and coaches. Research debate camps for your event and look through the dates, costs, testimonials, and coaches to see if they would be a good fit for you. Many camps also offer financial aid based on one’s economic situation if that is a barrier to attendance. Just make sure you are doing something so that you can be ready for the next competitive season.

In late January, the USA Debate team competed in the International Debate Weekend (IDW). The event was a friendly practice weekend jointly hosted by Team Singapore and the Anglo-Chinese Junior College.

The IDW, in normal years, includes exploring Singapore’s beautiful botanical gardens, world-famous airport, and cultural cuisine. This year, the event took place online, meaning the team pushed through time zones meant for the other side of the globe to take part of the enriching opportunity to spar with top international teams. Although it was online, the team had a wonderful experience learning with high-level competition.

UPDATES FROM USA DEBATE

The IDW is not a formal competition—rounds are not given wins or losses. Rather, mentors from each team give intense feedback after each round. This usually comes from team coaches, assistant coaches, or alumni. The breadth and depth of international adjudicators made it a fantastic opportunity for the team to experiment with new styles and strategies to see what works and doesn’t.

In addition, the IDW purposefully gives unique motions, many where the framework, model, and definitions aren’t clear to make debates challenging for debaters. Even further, the prep time for each round was 45 minutes instead of an hour,

forcing the team to brainstorm and create arguments, refutation, and strategy quickly.

In February, the USA Debate team competed in the Harvard World Schools Debate Invitational. The team of Hannah Heeger (’22), Jane Grey Battle (’22), and Jennifer Lin (’22) reached double octafinals, while the team of Victor Tong (’22), Vinayak Menon (’23), and Kate Drum (’22) ended its run in the octafinals round after a close loss.

As the season comes to a close, the team is

gearing up for the annual World Schools Debating Championships—the Netherlands Online WSDC 2022. The five team members debating will be captain Miles Wang (’22), Hannah Heeger (’22), Cameron Kettles (’22), Vinayak Menon (’23), and Abbey Xu (’22). It will be held by the International Debate Education Association (IDEA), an organization based in Europe. The team is excited to continue training and attending events to get ready for WSDC!

Cameron Kettles is a senior from Greenhill School in Texas. Miles Wang is a senior from A. W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts in Florida.

USA Debate members enjoy bonding through their annual holiday gift exchange. An online world means mailing gifts ahead of time and opening together.

THANK YOU

... for unlocking SUPER POWERS in students!

Speech and debate has given me the confidence to speak to others boldly and kindly. In interviews, debates, discussions, and everything in between, speech and debate has provided me the ability to effectively communicate—and listen—in a world that needs it more than ever.”

H elp more students unleash their potential by making your tax deductible gift online!

w ww.speechanddebate.org/donate

CAMILLE FURST RIDGE HIGH SCHOOL, NJ CLASS OF 2018

I decided to include the NSDA in my estate plans because speech and debate is an activity that teaches everything from argumentation and speaking skills to humility and gracefully losing. This activity made me a different and better person, and I want to make sure that students well into the future are afforded the opportunities I was.”

Aarzu Maknojia NSDA ALUM

The National Speech & Debate Association is grateful to acknowledge the following 1925 Society members for pledging a generous planned gift contribution.

Byron Arthur

Phyllis Flory Barton

Jane Boyd

James Copeland

Don and Ann Crabtree

Rob Dekoven

Dr. Mike Edmonds

A. C. Eley

Vickie and Joe Fellers

Bill and Charlotte Hicks

David and Judy Huston

Jennifer Jerome

Harold Keller

Kandi King

Cherian and Betsy Koshy

Dr. Tommie Lindsey, Jr.

Aarzu Maknojia

Pam and Ray McComas

H. B. Mitchell

Lanny and B. J. Naegelin

Albert Odom, Jr.

J. W. Patterson

Capt. Joseph L. and Jan Pizzo

Dr. Polly and Bruce Reikowski

Donus and Lovila Roberts

James W. Rye III

Steve and Anna Schappaugh

David Seikel

Michael Shapiro

Sandra Silvers

Richard Sodikow

William Woods Tate, Jr.

Scott and Chan Waldrop

Nicole and Darrel Wanzer-Serrano

Cheryl Watkins

J. Scott and Megan Wunn

Joe and Pam Wycoff

David and Tatiana Yastremski

THE SOCIETY 1925

Leaving your legacy with the NSDA can be done in three easy steps:

1. Add a simple paragraph to your will stating the NSDA as a beneficiary. You can revise your gift at any time.

2. Notify Nicole Wanzer-Serrano that the NSDA has been added to your will. nicole@speechanddebate.org

3. Celebrate knowing that you will impact future generations by joining The 1925 Society!

Contact Nicole for more information: nicole@speechanddebate.org

Meet a few of our speech and debate champions!

Schools with a history of speech and debate often refer to the campus-wide changes they see after starting a team as the “speech and debate effect.”

Administrators report that offering a program improves overall classroom performance, increases student engagement in the classroom, increases school pride, and decreases negative student behavior. By supporting speech and debate at your school, you can positively influence student outcomes across the board.

The benefits to students and schools are noteworthy:

• Speech and debate supports the development of academic skills, as students learn to research, read, and write more effectively

• Students use critical thinking to deconstruct the logic of what they read and consider creative solutions to society’s problems.

• Studies have linked the activity to a 36% increase in reading test scores and an 87% increase in analytical skills for participants.

• A 2020 LinkedIn survey of more than 660 million professionals revealed creativity, persuasion, collaboration, and adaptability as the most in demand soft skills—skills developed and refined through participation in speech and debate.

• Participants have reported 15% higher self esteem after participating in competitive forensics, and schools have experienced a 31% increase in regular attendance. Through speech and debate, students become comfortable translating their experiences and feelings into words and sharing them with others, which prepares them for success both inside and outside of the school environment.

Visit

Does your school administrator champion speech and debate? Let us know at info@speechanddebate.org.

www.speechanddebate.org/advocacy

SUSAN KNOBLAUCH IHSA Administrator for Speech & Debate, IL

ERROL EVANS Principal, Silver Lakes Middle School, FL

ALFRED F. DUGAN III Head of School, Princeton Acad. of the Sacred Heart, NJ

DR. TAMMY FERGUSON Head of School, The Weiss School, FL

SHARRON HEINREICH Principal (Retired), Gabrielino High School, CA

CARLOS CASTILLO Instructional Superintendent CIPL, Fresno Unified, CA

D. SCOTT LOONEY Head of School, Hawken School, OH

HOLLY WILLIAMS Associate Superintendent, Mesa Public Schools, AZ

CONGRATS Class of 22!

Show off your achievements and wear your NSDA Honor Society cords at graduation!

As members of one of the oldest and largest honor societies—the National Forensic League—students are eligible to wear National Speech & Debate Association honor cords at induction or graduation ceremonies to recognize their accomplishments.

Order Your Honor Cords Today!

$14

bit.ly/NSDAHonorCords

HUMILITY EQUITY INTEGRITY RESPECT LEADERSHIP SERVICE

WE WANT YOU—CLASS OF 22! Stay connected with the speech and debate community after graduation by claiming your FREE alumni membership! Find out more at bit.ly/NSDAAlumni

www.speechanddebate.org

Newsstand Price: $9.99 per issue

Member Subscription: $24.99 for 5 issues

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SPEECH AND DEBATE TAUGHT ME