National Parliamentary Debate League

Organizing High School Parliamentary Debate in the United States

 

Head-Royce in Oakland to host NPDL-TOC April 5-7, 2025

The Head-Royce School, located in Oakland, California, will host the 2025 NPDL Tournament of Champions. The tournament will be held over three days (Saturday, Sunday, Monday) this year, with the final elimination rounds held on Monday, April 7. Note that this is a modification of the original Friday-Sunday schedule.

NPDL Fall October 12-13, 2024

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NPDL Nationals March 7-9, 2025

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NPDL-TOC April 5-7, 2025

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NPDL Fall October 12-13, 2024 – NPDL Nationals March 7-9, 2025 – NPDL-TOC April 5-7, 2025 –

““Debate is meant to be a place for disagreement ... this is only possible if we listen to and communicate with each other.””
— Sophie Rukin & Riyana Srihari, in "Reflections on the Lay Kritik"

Top 10 Leaderboards

For rankings rules, see Article XXI of the Board Code. Rankings may take up to 30 days to be updated based on published tournament results.

Austin Gordon (Dalton) & Zoe Manges (Horace Mann) win NPDL Fall ‘24

Congratulations to 2024 NPDL Fall Champions, Austin Gordon & Zoe Manges, from Dalton & Horace Mann. They prevailed on a 5-0 decision over Nueva’s Eli Wee & Ritika Savla, affirming the topic, “Government benefit programs should offer extra benefits to people for being parents.” The NPDL would also endorse extra government benefits to people for being parent judges!

 

Isaac Grolnic-McClurg & Jacob Goldman from
Berkeley High School win NPDL-TOC ‘24

Congratulations 2024 NPDL-TOC champions, Isaac Grolnic-McClurg & Jacob Goldman from Berkeley High School, coached by Joel Jacobs! Additionally, congratulations to our runners-up, Syon Patel & Logan Ramanathan from the Nueva School, coached by Julie Herman. Isaac & Jacob prevailed on a 4-3 decision. The tournament was hosted April 5-7 at Bard High School Early College Queens, with 65 teams competing.

 
Featured
March Newsletter
March Newsletter

We are incredibly excited to invite you all to the NPDL National Tournament - an online high school parliamentary debate championship open to teams from across the US. The tournament is April 14-16. Please register by April 5.

On May 1-7 we will be electing the 2023-24 Board of Directors. If you are considering throwing your hat into the ring, make sure to email our Inspectors of Election at npdl.elections@gmail.com by April 5, 11:59PM (Pacific time).

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January Newsletter
January Newsletter

If you are interested in serving on the staff of either Nationals or TOC, click here to apply. The Board will be reviewing staff applications at its January 10 meeting, so please do your best to submit your application by January 9.

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November Newsletter
November Newsletter

The two most popular options for NPDL Nationals are March 24-26 and April 14-16. Please survey your students prior to November 29 to see which date(s) they are available for. Our Written Ballot will include a question about which date we should go with.

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Featured
Definitions
What We Owe to Each Other: Reflections on the Lay Kritik

BY SOPHIE RUKIN & RIYANA SRIHARI

My name is Riyana, a senior at Nueva, and I’m Sophie, a junior at Horace Mann. This article is an amalgamation of the many critical debate-related conversations we’ve had over the past two weeks—reflections on Nueva SW’s lay kritik at the NPDL Tournament of Champions, our thoughts on the ideological divide between our respective coasts, and our strategy for building a stronger community.