Diversity and Inclusion

Each year, the NSDA solicits recommendations from coaches’ caucuses that convene at the National Tournament to help drive diversity, inclusion, and equity efforts for the following year.

Read our 2020-2021 Equity Commitments approved at the Sept 2020 Board of Directors meeting.

Learn more about our 2020-21 Judge Accreditation and Equity initiatives announced on Aug 21, 2020.

Read our statement on George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery.

You can also read about our past inclusion work in the following articles found in the 2019 November December Rostrum, 2018 September/October Rostrum and the 2018 February/March Rostrum.

Join us in making speech and debate a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive activity. You can download our free resources below to help make your team and your tournaments more equitable for all. Thank you to our members of the Coaches’ Caucus and other community members for significant contributions in developing these materials. Visit our Resources page and use the “inclusion” filter to the left of the screen to find related items to find more resources.

Free Member Resources

Thanks to the generosity of The Julia Burke Foundation, NSDA member students have the opportunity to compete in a series of free tournaments this year. Each event will have a middle school and a high school open division. Schools and students must be NSDA members to enter the tournament. There is no entry fee for participation. Visit our Springboard Series page for me info.

We are honored to host a series of online coaches’ caucuses later this summer to discuss issues of inclusion in the speech and debate community. We hope interested coaches will join in this important discussion and dialogue!

The National Speech & Debate Association is committed to providing its participants, judges, coaches, and staff the opportunity to pursue excellence in their endeavors. This opportunity can exist only when each member of our community is assured an atmosphere of mutual respect. The NSDA prohibits all forms of harassment and discrimination. Accordingly, all forms of harassment and discrimination, whether written or oral, based on race, color, religion, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, marital status, citizenship, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by any applicable federal, state, or local law are prohibited, whether committed by participants, judges, coaches, or observers. Individuals who are found to have violated this policy will be subject to the full range of sanctions, up to and including removal from the tournament premises.

The results of that survey, which garnered approximately 160 external stakeholder responses, were provided along with caucus recommendations to the Third Thing Institute, headed by Dr. Sherry Watt at the University of Iowa, for further analysis. After review of the feedback we received through both channels, the Third Thing Institute recommended we focus on external training and leadership this year.

The following executive summary includes survey data collected by the NSDA leadership from both their internal staff and external members of the National Speech & Debate Association (NSDA). Data was collected around the time of the National Tournament in 2018.