Students from inner cities find power at the podium

Some students' heroic victories happen at a lectern instead of on a sports field. They tackle with talking points and block with quick wits. They score touchdowns with eloquent persuasion.

Urban high school debate teams are defying the odds - whether they field national champions or simply transform a group of once-apathetic students into avid readers and skilled communicators. And they've been growing exponentially. In just seven years, 16 urban debate leagues have been established, bringing roughly 280 schools into a competitive realm long dominated by their better-funded suburban and private counterparts.

The momentum started with private funding for a debate league in New York's public schools from George Soros's Open Society Institute. With the spotlight on academic accountability, other districts have joined with private partners to replicate the model because of its track record of improving achievement levels and equipping at-risk students with lifelong skills.

Many urban debate coaches still labor away with few resources or accolades - sometimes taking on the extra roles of chauffeur, fundraiser, and even parent figure to students whose home lives are coming apart at the seams. But last month they were validated when a fellow coach received a "genius grant" from the MacArthur Foundation in Chicago. Tommie Lindsey won $500,000 for his work teaching forensics - which includes debate, public speaking, and dramatic interpretations of poetry and prose. In 14 years, he's expanded the forensics program at Logan High in Union City, Calif., from 15 students to well over 200, with about half a dozen competing nationally each year.

The award gives a huge boost to advocates who have been calling on school districts and philanthropists alike to support more urban forensics programs.

"This changes lives in a way that few other activities do, [but] our spending priorities are out of whack," says John Davis, director of the National High School Forensics Academy, a summer program that started this year at Howard University in Washington. "You'll have 10 different sports available, all with equipment, and we have to rent the use of the school buildings on weekends to have tournaments. The dichotomy is stark."

Marsha Sakwa sees that dichotomy every day, but she keeps writing grant proposals so she can send her burgeoning forensics team to competitions. She started with eight students 12 years ago at the Detroit High School for the Fine/Performing Arts, a public school that's nearly 100 percent African-American.

It was the only urban team in Michigan, she says, and one of the members qualified for state competition that first year, but she couldn't get enough money to send her. "I swore that would never happen again," Ms. Sakwa says.

Now the team is 42 members strong, packed with state champions who mentor younger team members. But students say it's the work, as much as the winning, that's made the biggest difference for them.

"I was kind of rough around the edges ... but Ms. Sakwa taught me complete discipline," says 11th-grader Krista McGee, speaking on a cellphone from Sakwa's classroom. Krista started in ninth grade thinking she was "the greatest actress," but competitive forensics was tough, and it gave her new respect for adults. "Now I want to go to college and I want to learn as much as I can," she says.

"Forensics has been helping me break stereotypes of African-Americans - urban children in general - playing basketball or getting quick money," says Brandon Wilkerson, a 10th-grader with a voice surprisingly deep for a 15-year-old.

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