About the Portland Urban Debate League
Why Debate Matters
Portland Urban Debate League (PUDL) was created to offer a unique and transformative extracurricular opportunity for high school students from low-income backgrounds who attend under-resourced schools. PUDL is helping to close opportunity gaps that have denied too many young people access to academic success, college preparation, and meaningful, socially powerful careers.
Common Core
Debate teaches and reinforces several standards in the Common Core curriculum: speaking, listening, and literacy in social studies. We refer to these skills that debate teaches as the “PEAR” skills, each of which is a Common Core standard or a group of standards.
GPAs and Graduation
Urban Debate League debaters have better grades and are far more likely to graduate high school than non-debaters, as decades worth of data now confirm. As one researcher summarized after studying data from multiple U.D.L.s across the United States, “Two results are clear–debaters achieve significantly higher grades and intend to attend college at a substantially greater rate than their non-debating peers”.
College Admission, College Readiness, & Standardized Tests
Research has confirmed repeatedly that debaters (a) have an advantage in college admissions and (b) are more likely to meet college readiness benchmarks, as measured by standardized test scores.
Leadership, Empowerment, & Non-Cognitive Outcomes
Debaters are more likely to use their newly developed communication skills to solve conflicts without resorting to violence; to become more connected to their peers and school; to further raise their awareness of social and political issues; and to see themselves as empowered leaders of their communities.
Teacher Education
While the other benefits listed here apply to students, it’s important to realize that teachers also benefit enormously from their participation in debate. The PUDL gives teachers extensive training in techniques for teaching debate, enhancing their professionalism and skill set. Most of these skills cross over to teaching English and to teaching writing.
Equitable Outcomes
Despite some improvements in recent years, there continues to be a persistent achievement gap for BIPOC students and students from low-income backgrounds in Oregon. Portland Urban Debate League is an academic intervention targeting disparities experienced by students from low-income and underprivileged backgrounds, including: fewer enrichment opportunities, lower graduation rates, and lack of access to college/career readiness resources.