1000 Great Debaters

10/04/2025

Congratulations to the Bolles Speech and Debate Team for their outstanding performances at the St. Augustine Forensic League Tournament in Gainesville last weekend! 🏆👏 Read about their impressive wins and top honors: https://bit.ly/4o6PoOs.

07/17/2025

Bolles Speech and Debate Team member Sohan Patel ’27 recently directed a middle school public speaking camp that he and Wolfson High School Speech and Debate Team member Jarrett Kelley initiated this year.

This summer camp brought together students from across the Jacksonville community who wanted to learn the basics of speech, debate and Student Congress. Learn more here: https://bit.ly/3TGK5YM.

07/11/2025

You do t get an A for moderation and low expectations.

07/28/2024

WHY CONSOLIDATING LOCAL PUBLIC SCHOOLS REMAINS A SUBJECT OF DEBATE:

Florida officials cheered the new statewide scores, with Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. saying the grades “reflect Florida’s steadfast commitment to excellence in education.”

Student scores:Duval student test scores lag state despite some schools 'knocking it out of the park'

Statewide, close to 200 more schools earned A grades than last year and about 100 fewer schools received D or F grades, data from the Florida Department of Education showed.

Charter schools operate under contracts with local school districts and aren't controlled by the rules set for low-performing district schools. No Duval County charter schools were graded F in the state's latest report card. These were the charters graded D and how they scored the year before:

Tiger Academy, unchanged from 2023
Somerset Academy-Elementary, Eagle Campus, down from a C in 2023
KIPP V.O.I.C.E. Academy, unchanged from 2023
Wayman Academy of the Arts, improved from F the year before
Florida Cyber Charter Academy, down from a C in 2023
San Jose Primary School, improved from F in 2023
KIPP Jacksonville K-12, unchanged from 2023
Jacksonville Classical Academy East, improved from F in 2023

How Public Schools, primarily on the Northside faired:

Graded F
Annie R. Morgan Elementary, unchanged from 2023
Graded D
Andrew A. Robinson Elementary, down from a C
Highlands Elementary, down from a C
Hyde Park Elementary, down from a C
Kings Trail Elementary, down from a C
Long Branch Elementary, down from a C
Northwestern Legends Elementary, improved from an F in 2023
Pinedale Elementary, down from a C
Sallye B. Mathis Elementary, down from a C
Susie E. Tolbert Elementary, down from a C
Woodland Acres Elementary, unchanged from 2023
Matthew W. Gilbert Middle School, unchanged from 2

07/28/2024

Grading ...learn how your school scored in 2023-2024.

07/28/2024

Resolved: Should the Federal Government restrict funding to the State of Florida for developing a racially-biased African-American curriculum mandated in public schools.

Duval County Public Schools.

Republicans are promising to adopt many education policies Gov. DeSantis has implemented in Florida. Here's what they are.

03/31/2024

While policy debaters historically have come from high-income private and public schools, Duval Urban Debate League ( ) debaters are more likely to be students who are living or grew up in economically disadvantaged communities and underfunded schools.

In addition to its competitive debate activities, including the hosting of online virtual debate tournaments and the operation of a summer debate institute, DUDL also facilitates the use of debate techniques in classroom teaching in middle and high schools in the North Florida area.

Results from a new study on the impact of participating in competitive policy debate on educational achievement show that debate makes a real, positive difference, as measured by multiple outcomes (ELA test scores, graduation rates, and college enrollment).

Check out this video on the fundamentalsd of .

03/31/2024

HOW WORKS

A debate round includes a total of 69 minutes of , cross-examination, and prep time. Including the judge’s deliberation and decision delivery, the whole debate typically lasts between 75 and 90 minutes.