Tulsa Debate League

Modeled after the most effective urban debate leagues in the country, we aim to transform Title 1 public schools by organizing competitions, operating summer camps, and provide professional development to teachers and coaches. As a result, students in our program will develop 21st century skills such as critical thinking, communication, and creativity that are the cornerstone of postsecondary success. Research shows that debate can dramatically close the achievement gap in urban school districts - debaters are more likely to graduate from high school, meet college-readiness benchmarks and achieve greater cumulative grade point average than their peers.

Our core strategy is to develop inclusive but challenging debate programming. Debate teaches students how to support ideas with evidence, how to analyze the weaknesses in opposing arguments, but also how to empathize with and understand differing viewpoints. Delivering debate education to a large number of students in low-income schools means creating the right community for debate to flourish - one where all students are welcome and where effort and participation are emphasized over competition. This manifests itself in every aspect of our organization, from the training of teachers and volunteers, to the attitude of staff at tournaments.

It is important to acknowledge that many students in our schools are not reading on grade level or have other skill deficits. While our goal is the same - to challenge every student to becomes their best selves, we recognize that we first have to meet students where they are. Therefore, we have created a curriculum that differentiates for student ability levels.

Teacher professional development is the core of our work. Most of our teachers come to us with no or little background in debate. We create workshops, curriculum, and systems of support that build novice teachers into effective debate educators.

Finally, we operate a two to three week summer camp, free to our students, which provides students with an intensive learning experience during months when learning loss is high.

1. Partnerships with local school districts and mission-aligned charter schools.
2. Mobilization of dedicated school day partners and community members as debate coaches.
3. Relationships with key community leaders
4. Partnerships with key like-minded organizations like the Opportunity Project.
5. Our two 21st Century Learning Communities at Will Rogers High School and Daniel Webster
High School.
6. Philanthropic relationships we have cultivated over the past several years.
7. Placing our staff in positions that play to their individual strengths and passions.
8. Our unwavering organizational belief that debate, in some form, is for every student.
9. Our Debate For All program at McLain High School, Monroe Demonstration Academy and
Central High School. This program will launch in the fall of 2020. We have partnered with TPS
and each school’s administration to provide access to debate to significant portions of their
respective student bodies.

The organization has grown from a small fund supporting one debate team to an integral part of our district partners' education offerings, supporting 35 schools and over 550 students in 2020. We were recognized for our achievements as a finalize for the Oklahoma Nonprofits Excellence (ONE) Awards, Oklahoma's most prestigious nonprofit recognition. https://www.oklahomacenterfornonprofits.org/tulsa-debate-league-2020-one-awards-finalist/

Next year, we plan on pioneering the Debate for All Program, a new initiative by the Tulsa Debate League to transform the academic culture of middle and high school student body through debate education..We are partnering with Tulsa Public Schools to bring debate education to three mission aligned schools in our league. Typically our debate program is limited to a few classes during the school day for our high schools and afterschool programs for our elementary and middle school partners. With Debate for All we are partnering to expand debate education is a multi-year program that teaches debate’s powerful critical thinking and communication skills to an entire grade level. We provide a complete curriculum, professional development that provides instructors with a framework to implement debate’s critical thinking and communication skills into their daily lessons, an expert consultant to train and support the instructors, and a schedule of tournaments and events for students to put their new knowledge to the test. We also provide an after school debate practice for students to continue learning during out-of-school time