About Us

Our Beginning

In 2014, a group of former debaters surveyed the educational landscape in D.C. and lamented the lack of high-quality debate programs available for public school students. Debate is a transformative educational experience, but it was only available to students at elite private institutions. They decided to do something about it and founded the Washington Urban Debate League, a non-profit dedicated to improving student outcomes through participation in competitive policy debates.

Our Mission

The Washington Urban Debate League (WUDL) uses debate to make transformative opportunities available for students in the D.C. area. Peer-reviewed research shows that competitive debate is one of the best things a student can do with their out-of-school time, building life-long and career-oriented skills that cannot be automated or outsourced. Debaters show more substantial academic and social-emotional growth and graduate and attend college at a higher rate than their non-debater peers. Sadly, debate is traditionally only found at elite private and suburban schools. WUDL creates a space where middle and high school students attending public schools (especially Title 1 Schools) can hone their critical thinking skills, participate in an intellectual community of their peers, and grow in self advocacy. WUDL also provides a pathway to college and career readiness that compliments traditional pedagogy.

Our Values

  • Elevated Discourse: At a time when disinformation and personal insults dominate public discourse, we know students can do better, offering evidence driven, rigorously tested ideas that consider alternative perspectives. 
  • Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion: These values are enmeshed in our day to day activities; its at the core of our programming and how we think about our work. 
  • Power of Young People: We center their voices and experiences, listening to them, and having high expectations for them. They’re going to change the world. 
  • Education: We are an education first organization, where creating space for student growth is our north star. Whether its learning a new word, something about the world around them, or something about themselves and their own capabilities, creating equitable educational opportunities is our focus 
Washington Urban Debate League 990 Form

Our Theory of Change

Urban Debate Leagues Around The Nation -- National Association of Urban Debate Leagues (NAUDL)

The Urban Debate Model is based on the lessons learned from decades of experience, but also in hard numbers. The National Association of Urban Debate Leagues (NAUDL) conducts ongoing peer-reviewed studies to examine the impact of urban debate programming, and provides hard data on what works and what doesn’t.

These studies have found that participation in competitive policy debate is immensely beneficial across the board, from increased grades and attendance to graduation rates (from high school AND college), and test scores. Our programs are developed this research in mind and focus on improving student learning outcomes.

Urban Debate makes this transformative educational activity accessible to everyone. Our goal is to build a policy debate team (and spread the associated benefits) in every single public middle and high school in the metro area. Every student who wants to should have the opportunity to find their voice through a high quality debate program. As we grow, we hope to keep even our best competitors challenged with access to regional and national competitions, but our focus will remain on providing high quality local debate experiences for all students, even those brand new to the activity.

To learn more about the urban debate network, visit: www.urbandebate.org