Debate

Entries/Judges

Any number of entries may be registered by 12 Noon, Monday, December 7, with one judge for every two entries, and coaches should bring lay, non-debate specialist judges whenever possible. This does not preclude judges who have experience in debate, but they should be aware that the prime objective of this contest is to build participation, and not on esoteric technicalities of debate theory. Uncovered judging obligations will be assessed at a rate of $100/judge, payable to WHSFA. For for any special needs/dietary restrictions accommodations your students or judges may have, please contact us.

Schedule

  8:00 a.m. - Registration Begins, Todd Wehr 104
  8:30 a.m. - Registration Ends; Meeting for Debaters and Judges, Todd Wehr 104
  8:45 a.m. - Round 1
  9:30 a.m. - Round 2
10:30 a.m. - Round 3
11:30 a.m. - Round 4
--- LUNCH --- With Ethics Bowl Exhibition
  1:00 p.m. - Semifinals
  2:00 p.m. - Finals, Todd Wehr 104
  3:15 p.m. - Awards, Todd Wehr 104

Topic

The topic will be released Nov. 1, and will be the December National Speech & Debate Association topic: Resolved: On balance, standardized testing is beneficial to K-12 education in the United States.

Contest Rules/Guidelines

We use the Public Forum format for debate, with one modification in timing: the Final Focus will be up to one minute in length. Also, speaker points are on a scale of 1-10.

Rounds 1 and 2 will be randomly paired; Rounds 3 and 4 will be power-matched, high/low within brackets. Multiple teams from the same school will not be protected against each other. The emphasis of this contest is on the achievement of individual teams, and not schools/squads, overall. Elimination rounds will consist of a panel of an odd number of judges. The final round will compile a vote of all student observers who write a ballot as counting equivalent strength to one adult judge.

We will allow judges the option to input e-ballots. Read instructions here (thank you, John Knetzger of West Bend and Jim Menick of Hendrick Hudson HS, NY, for compiling these instructions).