EBA in Boston
The impetus for the Boston Debate League’s (BDL) Evidence-Based Argumentation (EBA) program came from the Boston Public Schools (BPS), who tasked the BDL with figuring out a way for more students in member schools to gain the tremendous academic and social benefits of debate. In consultation with the BPS Academic Superintendent for High Schools and the headmasters of our member schools, the BDL concluded that the most effective way to bring debate’s benefits to all BPS students would be through a coordinated professional development program that trains teachers to employ debate as a pedagogical tool in their classrooms across all academic disciplines.
In early years, this program was known as Debate Across the Curriculum, but the name has shifted to acknowledge that the majority of successful argumentation activities are not actually debates but are instead shorter lessons where students practice one or more of the skills that together contribute to a successful debate.
Each summer, the BDL hosts multiple graduate-level courses to train teachers to use argumentation activities to engage their students in rigorous academic instruction. During the 2010-2011 school year, the BDL provided ongoing support in five schools, where BDL staff worked closely with a team of five to seven teachers. These teachers received intensive, monthly support from the BDL as they learned to effectively integrate debate into their classrooms, collaborating with one another to brainstorm lessons and address persistent challenges.
Over the next few years, the BDL plans to take this program fully to scale. It will serve teachers in fifteen BPS schools during the 2011-2012 academic year, regularly providing professional development instruction to particular grade cohorts or entire faculties. This program has become so popular among teachers and headmasters that BPS has requested that the BDL support their work to rewrite the official BPS curriculum to support the Common Core State Standards. They have asked the BDL to help them integrate debate techniques into this curriculum and to develop and lead professional development workshops that train teachers to effectively use those techniques. This means that every teacher and every student in BPS high schools will have some exposure to Evidence-Based Argumentation in the coming years, a tremendous opportunity for the BDL to reach thousands of students every year.