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books & RESEARCH PROJECTS
While feature films and documentaries on debate and youth expression have been produced for a number of years, it is only recently that book projects have emerged on the scene. Debaters are also writing more and more books that reflect their successes in life and lessons learned. Given the success of such ventures, the Associated Leaders of Urban Debate expects that trend to continue and is happy to serve as a resource for would-be authors. ALOUD can provide story ideas, historical fact-checking assistance and even ghost writers if desired. For more information, please send an email to debateleaders@gmail.com. All of the books below are available on Amazon.com. Here is a sampling:
BOOKS ABOUT DEBATE AND YOUTH EXPRESSION
The IMPACT Coalition's New York Urban Debate League is one of a handful of groups singled out for innovation and excellence in Afterschool Matters. According to a recent review, Afterschool Matters provides concrete models that demonstrate how to help youth who are struggling academically and how to support them in their overall development. Editor Sara Hill brings together a range of projects grounded in student interests to enhance multiple student competencies by embracing the social, artistic, civic, emotional, and intellectual growth of students.
In Cross-X, journalist Joe Miller follows the Kansas City Central High School’s debate squad through the 2002 season that ends with a top-ten finish at the national championships in Atlanta.
By almost all measures, Central is just another failing inner-city school. Ninety-nine percent of the students are minorities. Only one in three graduate. Test scores are so low that Missouri bureaucrats have declared the school “academically deficient.” But week after week, a crew of Central kids heads off to debate tournaments in suburbs across the Midwest and South, where they routinely beat teams from top-ranked schools. In a game of fast-talking, wit, and sheer brilliance, these students close the achievement gap between black and white students—an accomplishment that educators and policy makers across the country have been striving toward for years.
Here is the riveting and poignant story of four debaters and their coach as they battle formidable opponents from elite prep schools, bureaucrats who seem maddeningly determined to hold them back, friends and family who are mired in poverty and drug addiction, and—perhaps most daunting—their own self-destructive choices. In the end, Miller finds himself on a campaign to change debate itself, certain that these students from the Eastside of Kansas City may be the saviors of a game that is intrinsic to American democracy.
What Reviewers Are Saying:
"One of the 100 best books of 2006!"
- Publishers Weekly

"Top Ten Nonfiction Books of 2006!"- Amazon.com