7
Research Setting
Data come from the 2001 John C. Stennis National Student Congress sponsored by
the National Forensic League (NFL), the governing association for high school and
collegiate speech and debate competitions. The mock legislative debate competition was
held over five days in Oklahoma City in June 2001 and attracted 425 participants from 42
different states. Participants qualified for the national event by competing in state-level
competitions, where the number of participants advancing to the national tournament depends
not on the population of the state but rather upon the number of students involved in state-level
legislative debate contests. For example, Nevada sent nine competitors while New York sent ten.
More than one third of the competitors come from states with large populations or close
proximity to the competition site: Texas (40), California (36), Missouri (28), Kansas (25),
Colorado (20), and Florida (17). Most participants are high school seniors and juniors, though a
handful are high school sophomores.
Rounds of legislative debate operate under strict rules of procedure that encourage
participation, insure equal opportunity to speak, and require broad-based involvement. All
participants compete in the two-day preliminary round of competition, and then based on their
scores, the top 25 percent of the participants advance to two days of semi-final rounds. The 25
percent with the highest scores in semi-finals are selected for the one-day final round.
Ultimately, nine top finishers are designated. In each round, participants are grouped randomly
with approximately 24 other students for purposes of engaging in debate. All contestants are
provided with resolutions in advance of the competition in order to do research and prepare
speeches. At the competition, speakers are allocated three minutes per turn, and speeches must
Convention