Abell Programs

City College became the first public high school in Baltimore City to field a debate team since the National Catholic Forensic League began in 1951.

Beginning in 1992, the City College High School Board of Visitors began to grapple with the problem of how to better define the school in the marketplace of Baltimore City high schools. Specifically, the board examined which of the activities – academic and/or extra-curricular – have historically distinguished the school and might be showcased. A “natural” on the list was the long-dormant and sorely missed Speech and Debate program.

The tradition of Speech and Debate at City College goes back to the 1870s, when the Bancroft Literary Society and the Carrollton Wight Literary Society provided forums at the school for the development of student debaters. The list of City’s Speech and Debate alumni is a long and distinguished one, and includes mayors, governors, leading academics and captains of business and industry.

In 1997, after a year of study and with funding from The Abell Foundation, City College revived its historic but long dormant Speech and Debate program and began earning for itself a reputation as a leading high school for forensic studies.

By the fall of 1997, a fledgling City College Speech and Debate team, under tutelage of a veteran coach and carrying the banners of the venerable Bancroft and Carrollton Wight debating societies, began to debate in competitions around the region.

The program is helping to define and distinguish City College as the pre-eminent high school for humanities in the region.

In making its first appearance in the National Catholic Forensic League, City College became the first public high school in Baltimore City to field a debate team since the League began in 1951. City’s Speech and Debate program comprises five separate disciplines: Student Congress, Lincoln-Douglas, Declamation, Policy, and Mock Trial.

About 60 students participate in the program, now integrated into the City College curriculum. The year’s coursework calls for training in all five disciplines and for competing in regional tournaments. Local tournaments include matches against Gilman, Calvert Hall, Friends, Loyola and Pikesville; in a typical year, the students travel to Princeton, Yale, Harvard and Penn, competing with the best high school debate programs in the country. In this intense competition, the City College teams have won their share of awards.

In recent years City College won the championship of both the National Catholic Forensic League and the Baltimore Urban Debate League - creating a record that is not likely to be topped. In Harvard's National Invitational high School competition, City finished in the top fifth of the country. City's Mock Trial team won the Baltimore City championship - in a league that includes Friends School, Boys Latin, Gilman, and Bryn Mawr. City won the National Forensic League (Chesapeake Region) Sweepstakes Championship, while qualifying an historic six competitors in the national tournament.

The renowned City College Speech and Debate program is working. Speech and Debate students' test scores are consistently among the highest in the city and the state, and its graduates are admitted in impressive numbers to America's most prestigious colleges. Most recently, of the eleven City College students admitted into Tier One colleges, eight were Speech and Debate students.

The program is bringing recognition and prestige to City College and to the Baltimore City Public School System.