The SY2014 Allstate Expanding Opportunities Incentives

As it has been for six solid years, Allstate is once again a very generous corporate sponsor of the Chicago Debate League in the 2013/14 season.

Facilitated by the work of the Chicago Debate Commission, Allstate is generously funding the Allstate Expanding Opportunities Initiative. This Allstate Initiative focuses resources on schools that work with very high percentages of lower-income students with the objective that they will undertake and sustain the extra effort necessary to include students who may need these skills the most into the competitive debate league. Allstate Expanding Opportunities Initiative incentives are provided to schools 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: argumentation based on and in evidence drawn from complex texts. Allstate and the CDC are committed to allocating resources to educator-coaches working in the most challenging conditions and producing results.

The schools in the Expanding Opportunities category are schools with 80% or more Title I (from low-income families) students. Based on a full SY2014 roster of school demographics, the following 34 high schools (69% of the 49 total high schools in the CDL) are part of the Allstate Expanding Opportunities Incentive Program, shown here with their Title I student percentage:

Air Force (85%)
Alcott HS (81%)
Amundsen (93%)
Bogan (88%)
Clark (87%)
Corliss (94%)
Ellison (86%)
Epic (91%)
Harlan (92%)
Harper (98%)
Hubbard (98%)
Hyde Park (80%)
Juarez (94%)
Julian (89%)
Kelly (92%)
Kennedy (86%)
Little Village (98%)
Marshall (84%)
Morgan Park (81%)
North Grand (96%)
North Lawndale (88%)
Perspectives Joslin (88%)
Perspectives Calumet (90%)
Phoenix (94%)
Richards (100%)
RTC Medical Prep (87%)
Schurz (91%)
Senn (88%)
Solorio (96%)
UNO Garcia (94%)
Urban Prep Bronzeville (80%)
Westinghouse (85%)
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 (SY2014 over SY2013, adjusted), in these amounts:

1st – 5th Place — $500
6th – 10th Place — $250
11th – 20th Place — $125

The new fourth 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 ($500)
1. Urban Prep Bronzeville
2. Kennedy
3. North Lawndale
4. RTC Medical Prep
5. Senn

6th – 10th Place ($250)
6. Hubbard
7. Alcott
8. Solorio
9. Epic
9. North Grand

11th – 20th Place ($125)
11. Bogan
12. Harlan
13. PCS Joslin
14. U. of Chicago Woodlawn
15. Morgan Park
15. Schurz
17. UNO Garcia
18. Amundsen
19. Little Village
20. PCS Calumet

In addition, the Allstate Expanding Opportunities Incentives include an additional allocation to each school’s coaches of $100 for every 10 tournament debaters they have after T3 this season (SY2014) over their total after T3 last season (SY2013). Then again after T6, each Expanding Opportunities school will receive another $100 in coach incentives for every 10 tournament debaters they had by the end of this season over the end of last season (these incentives additional will be capped at $4,000 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 fourth page of the Tournament Reporting Notebook):

Alcott — $50
Bogan — $150
Harlan — $50
Hubbard — $100
Kennedy — $150
Little Village — $50
North Grand — $50
North Lawndale — $100
PCS Joslin — $100
RTC Medical Prep — $150
Senn — $200
Solorio — $100
U. of Chicago Woodlawn — $50
Urban Prep Bronzeville — $150

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 early part of January.

We thank Allstate Insurance for its tremendous generosity.