The Identity Crisis in Our Schools

I applaud the federal government’s No Child Left Behind – and its lesser-known predecessor, Clinton’s Goals 2000 – for compelling schools to define themselves. Regardless of the public distaste for the standards and tests in their current form, most states and schools operated in a vacuum beforehand. There were many curricular “black holes” in America.

National Champions - 2011

In 1994, Bellarmine College Prep in San Jose, California became the last school to officially be crowned a national champion by the National Forensic League. For the following four years, the NFL held their annual speech and debate tournament without recognizing schools in any way save for the Bruno E. Jacob Award, which touted a school’s continued participation at Nationals across several years.

National Champions - 2010

As school years have kicked off, the competitive season for high school speech and debate is likewise gearing up. To honor the coaches and students in this activity, I’ll continue a series I began this summer outlining the top ten schools from the National Forensic League’s annual championship tournament.

FIFA Follies

***NOTE: This is one of my last-ditch efforts to purge summer distractions from my mind before returning to the classroom. Thus, if you’re looking for more thoughts on education, gimme a week or so. This is pure diversion.

If college football fans believe the rankings of the Bowl Championship Series are ludicrous, they should check out how the rest of the world assesses “football”.

National Champions - 2009

This year’s National Forensic League Championship speech and debate tournament concluded on Saturday, so I should have the 2011 rankings done by week’s end. In the meantime, we continue to countdown with the top ten schools from the Nationals in 2009. These are NOT the NFL’s official results; they have no such rankings at the national level. (For more on that, see my earlier post here.)

10^th: Eastview High School – Apple Valley, Minnesota. Unlike the California schools profiled so far, which often have dozens of miles between them, this is the fourth school south of St. Paul to reach the NFL’s top ten (so far).