Houston Urban Debate League - Future of Space and Education - Press Release

For Immediate Release:
Houston Urban Debate League, The Future of Education and Space

Houston, Texas – September 14, 2010 – The Houston Urban Debate League (HUDL) will host its first policy debate tournament of the year on September 16th and 17th at Westside High School. The HUDL tournament provides the opportunity for over 300 HISD students to discuss the future of space policy. With the recent demise of the United States’ capability to launch humans into space, the future of space policy is more important than ever. HUDL students will debate this critical question for the entire year. Come see the future of education and the future of space policy.

The event will begin Friday afternoon with debate rounds starting at 4pm. Rounds will continue Saturday morning at 9am and conclude in the late evening hours on Saturday. Students will spend the weekend debating the following: “Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase its exploration and/or development of space beyond the Earth’s mesosphere.”

The mission of the Houston Urban Debate League (a non-profit charitable organization) is to build, support, and sustain programs in Houston’s public schools to make policy debate available to all students. Nation-wide, Urban Debate Leagues (UDL) have proven to increase literacy scores by 25%, improve grade-point averages by 8 to 10%, achieve high school graduation rates of nearly 100%, and produce college matriculation rates of 71-91%.

In our first season, over 200 students from 15 HISD schools participated in HUDL events, exceeding all expectations. Last year, the program expanded to include over 800 students from 27 schools, making HUDL the fastest growing and second largest UDL in the country. During that school year, HUDL provided over 2,700 rounds of competition and 32,000 student hours of academic enhancement outside of the classroom. Now in our third season, HUDL expects student participation to exceed 1,200 including 3,500 rounds of competition and 42,000 total out-of-school hours, a 33% increase, of academic enrichment.

HUDL targets schools that are classified as Title I schools due to the large percentage of students who come from low income and traditionally under-represented households. The vast majority of students, for example, will qualify under Title I, for free or reduced meal programs. HUDL targets schools with student bodies that are composed of at least 40 % Title I qualified and 40% under-represented minority groups. In reality, most of our schools are closer to being 70% Title I eligible and 70% under-represented.

Currently, HUDL offers six debate tournaments, four student seminars, a two-week-long residential summer debate institute at the University of Houston, and numerous opportunities for student educational and professional networking.

Contact:
Anthony Jardina, anthonyjardina@urbandebat.org, (o): 832-767-4661, (c): 214-803-6330

Anthony Jardina
Executive Director
Houston Urban Debate League
600 Travis Street
Suite 4200
Houston, Texas 77002

(o): 832-767-4661
(c): 214-803-6330
http://houstonurbandebateleague.org/

This release was published on openPR.