Urban Debate League programming centers on competitive academic debate tournaments for urban public school students. Directly supporting this component is the professional development of the coaches who recruit, motivate, teach, and coach the debaters throughout a UDL. The Chicago Debate League takes the professional development of its approximately 140 official coaches very seriously, and aims to continuously upgrade and improve the effectiveness of its professional development programming.
2014 Coach Training Courses
The Fundamentals of Debate Coaching and Varsity Debate Coaching courses were conducted in August, 2014, at Westinghouse College Prep. Attending coaches rated the courses very highly, and had some smart suggestions for future courses. Surveys results are available for the Fundamentals course and the Varsity course.
Coaches might wish to use the final assessments for the two courses, either in their own professional development, or in adapted use with their debaters.
Fundamentals of Debate Coaching Assessment
Fundamentals of Debate Coaching Assessment — Key
Varsity Coaching Assessment — Key
The Chicago Debate League implements a developed Professional Development System. The system’s standard is for each coach to take part in 20 hours of professional development throughout the season — 10 hours per semester. For external coaches, the standard is 10 hours overall, 5 hours per semester.
Professional development options are diverse. There are seven different ways coaches can undertake their professional development and training.
(i) Coach Training Courses
The CDC once again offered two training courses over the summer, 2010: Introduction to Debate Coaching, and Intermediate Debate Coaching. Coaches can find the dates and location for upcoming coach training courses by checking the CDL’s Season Calendar.
(ii) Coach Training Seminars
These are offered downtown on Saturday mornings throughout the season.
(iii) Tournament Coach Meetings
These 60 – 90 minute coach meetings are held at tournaments during rounds, for coaches who have met their judge requirements and are therefore not obligated to judge. They are led by trainers approved by the CDC, based on agendas announced and approved in advance.
(iv) Group Meetings
These are meetings held at a high school, during the week, for groups of coaches clustered geographically. They are led by a CDL coach instructor, with significant experience, approved by the CDC.
(v) Mentor Training
Coaches with fewer than three years of experience in the CDL can request a site visit from a mentor coach, a coach with more than three years of experience in the CDL and approved by the CDC to provide this mentoring. A mentor coach can visit a less experienced coach, at their mutual convenience, with specific agendas and objectives established, and after the meeting the mentor coach sends a report to the CDC.
(vi) CDC Site Visits
CDC staff conducts numerous and on-going site visits to schools throughout the season. Request a visit by contacting cydneyedwards@resources.chicagodebates.org.
(vii) Online Training
The CDC will be selecting – and sending out links to – on-line instructional videos and webinars for coaching competitive academic debate. Each video or webinar will be attached to a brief assessment. Coaches can observe training videos or webinars at their convenience, and are required to complete the attached assessment, sending it back to the CDC by email.
Note that coaches who are approved to lead tournament or group meetings of coaches, or to mentor another less experienced coach, can earn their professional development and training credit hours this way.
Training leaders must send an agenda of their training to the CDC prior to the professional development training, and following the event training leaders must report on the event. This report should include the times, attendees, and content covered at the event. Tournament Coach Meetings and Group Meetings should have an instructor and three or more coaches in attendance.
The Professional Development Reporting Notebook tracks professional development hours for each coach — in total, per semester, and for each of the seven categories of professional development offered by the CDC.