Announcing the SY2013 Allstate Expanding Opportunities Incentives

As it has been for almost five years now, Allstate is once again a very generous corporate sponsor of the Chicago Debate League this 2012/13 season.

Facilitated by the work of the Chicago Debate Commission, Allstate has increased its investment this year in the Allstate Expanding Opportunities Incentives. These are coach incentives provided by Allstate to schools in the “Expanding Opportunities” category for increasing participation in competitive academic debate this year over last year — for expanding the opportunities of lower-income students by using what may be the most powerful academic tool in secondary schools: formal argumentation based on and in evidence drawn from complex texts.

This year Allstate has committed $17,500 to Allstate Expanding Opportunities Incentives, the highest dollar amount that this extremely generous corporate sponsor has ever donated to this, one of its signature programs in the Chicago Debate League.

The schools in the Expanding Opportunities category are schools with 80% or more Title I (from very low-income families, impoverished) students. Based on a full SY2013 roster of school demographics, the following 27 high schools (59% of the 46 total high schools in the CDL) are part of the Allstate Expanding Opportunities Incentive Program:

Air Force (85% Title I)
Amundsen (93%)
Bogan (88%)
Clark (87%)
Ellison (88%)
Epic (91%)
Hubbard (98%)
Hyde Park (80%)
Juarez (94%)
Julian (89%)
Kelly (92%)
Little Village (98%)
Marshall (84%)
Mather (85%)
North Lawndale (88%)
Perspectives Joslin (88%)
Perspectives Tech (90%)
Phoenix (94%)
Power House (97%)
Schurz (91%)
Senn (88%)
Solorio (96%)
UNO Garcia (94%)
Urban Prep West (83%)
VOISE (96%)
Williams (82%)
Woodlawn (80%)

At the end of each semester — that is, after T3 and then again after T6 — Allstate Expanding Opportunities Incentives will be disbursed to the top 20 Expanding Opportunities schools in Participation Changes (SY2013 over SY2012, adjusted), in these amounts:

1st – 5th Place — $400
6th – 10th Place — $300
11th – 15th Place — $200
16th – 20th Place — $100

The new fifth sheet of the Tournament Reporting Notebook (be sure to download it — the preview on box.com isn’t quite the same document) has the full list of Expanding Opportunities schools on the Participation Changes metric at the end of the first semester, but here is the first set of 20 winning schools, in order.

1st – 5th Place ($400)
1. Solorio
2. Bogan
3. Marshall
4. PCS Joslin
5. Senn

6th – 10th Place ($300)
6. Little Village
7. Ellison
8. Kelly
9. Williams
10. Mather

11th – 15th Place ($200)
11. Phoenix
12. Julian
13. Air Force
13. Epic
13. Urban Prep West

16th – 20th Place ($100)
16. Power House
17. Clark
18. PCS Tech
19. VOISE
20. North Lawndale

In addition, the Allstate Expanding Opportunities Incentives include an additional allocation to each school’s coaches of $100 for every six tournament debaters they have after T3 this season (SY2013) over their total after T3 last season (SY2012). Then again after T6, each Expanding Opportunities school will receive another $100 in coach incentives for every eight tournament debaters they had by the end of this season over the end of last season (these incentives additional will be capped at $7,500 for the season, per the grant from Allstate).

After the end of the first semester, following T3, here are the schools that have earned these additional Allstate Expanding Opportunities Incentives, and in the specific amounts (which are also included on the fifth page of the Tournament Reporting Notebook):

Bogan — $350
Ellison — $300
Kelly — $250
Little Village — $350
Marshall — $450
Mather — $100
PCS Joslin — $400
Phoenix — $100
Senn — $150
Solorio — $150
Williams — $100

All of this adds up to an extraordinary investment by Chicago’s own Allstate corporation in the Chicago Debate League, and in particular in incentivizing CDL coaches from our high-Title I schools to expand the opportunities for their students by working harder and investing more of their own time to increase the level of their student participation in competitive academic debate.

Coaches can expect their incentive payment checks from the CDC by the middle of January.

We thank Allstate for its very deep generosity, and in particular Chicago Debate Commission Board member and Allstate Vice President Benjamin Tarver for supporting the Allstate Expanding Opportunities Incentives.