How one principal used debate to turn a failing middle school around
At Middle School 50 in Brooklyn, New York, principal Benjamin Honoroff and his students are pumped to start the day — a dramatic transformation from when he came in a decade ago.
"We were on a list of persistently dangerous schools, and there'd been some pretty drastic enrollment decline from over a thousand students to 160 students," Honoroff said.
But the former high school debate coach had an idea. He took a chance and integrated debate into every class, across all grade levels. He also expanded the debate team, and a third of the students enrolled with a select group traveling to tournaments.
Seventh grader Aria Rana says being on the debate team has helped her academically.
"I've noticed my words and my writing structure has become much better just in the time I've been in debate," Rana said.
Debate is infused into every subject, including math.
"For example, a ratio problem — are they going to use a ratio table, are they going to use a double number line? And what we find is when students explain their mathematical reasoning, it really deepens their conceptual understanding," Honoroff said.
The gamble paid off. Within a few years, test scores started to rise, enrollment increased and the debate team started to win. Proficiency scores, which had been in the single digits, jumped up to 60% in English and 70% in math, Honoroff said.
Erick Williams and his debate partner, Anedwin Moran, first found success at the local state level.
"I felt like it kind of gave us an edge when we went to tournaments because we were kind of already used to it," Williams said.
Then, last June, as eighth graders competing at the largest middle school debate tournament in the country, they won the national championship in policy debate.
"I was so happy. I couldn't process nothing. I was really happy and excited," Moran said.
"When I, like, really snapped into it and realized what we had accomplished, it took me back to, like, when we was in sixth grade, I wasn't even a registered debater. It felt like a journey worth taking," Williams said.
It was a journey that started with a principal who believed anything was possible with debate.
"There's a deep, deep pride in this school as a community hub. It's inspiring every day to walk down the block and have people say, I went to that school and, you know, keep it going, keep it going," Honoroff said.