United States Academic Decathlon

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The United States Academic Decathlon (USAD; often abbreviated to "AD", "Acadeca", "Acadec", "AcDec", or even "ACDC") is one of the premier academic competitions for high school students in the United States. The ten-event academic program strives to foster a greater respect for knowledge, to promote wholesome inter-school academic competition, and to further develop student communication skills. The Academic Decathlon was created to provide opportunities for students to experience the challenges of rigorous team and individual academic competition. The Academic Decathlon emphasizes the personal and academic growth of each student who, by meeting the challenges with honesty and integrity, can reap the rewards of greater self-knowledge and self-confidence for the future.

A unique aspect of the Academic Decathlon is that it is designed to include students from all academic abilities and achievement levels. Each nine-member team consists of three “A” (Honor division), three “B” (Scholastic division), and three “C or below” (Varsity division) students. Each team member competes in all ten events against other students in his/her division. Overall team scores are calculated using the top two individual scores from each division.

Gold, silver, and bronze medals are awarded for individual events and total scores. Overall individual winners are recognized as are champion teams. Teams advance through local, regional, and state levels of competition. The state champions compete at the national finals.

[edit] Events

Each student competes in ten events: art, economics, essay, interview, language and literature, math, music, science, social science, and speech. Either science or the social science topic is designated as the Super Quiz topic (see Super Quiz). Academic Decathletes take multiple-choice exams in art, economics, language and literature, math, music, science and social science. The multiple-choice exams in art, economics, language and literature, music, and social science each have 50 questions. The math exam has 35 questions. The written Super Quiz exam has 40 questions, and the Super Quiz oral relay has either 5 or 10 questions per student.

There are three performance events in the Academic Decathlon competition: speech, interview, and essay. In the speech event, Decathletes are expected to write, memorize, and deliver a speech with from 3.5–4 minutes in length, and in some states, to perform an 1.5–2-minute impromptu speech about a subject assigned at competition time; one minute of preparation time is given for the impromptu. In the Interview event, the students are asked questions about the Academic Decathlon curriculum and their high school activities and experiences in a formal environment. In the Essay event, students are given 50 minutes to write a well-organized essay about one of three or more prompts derived from the year’s curriculum. Usually, the prompt topics are obtained from the Language and Literature and Super Quiz material.

[edit] Curriculum

The Academic Decathlon’s curriculum is an interdisciplinary curriculum in which a selected theme is integrated across six different subject areas: art, economics, language and literature, music, science, and social science. Students also participate in essay-writing, speech, and interview events. The theme for the 2007–2008 Academic Decathlon curriculum is The Civil War. While in most subjects the majority of the topics relate to the overall curricular theme, some topics that cover fundamentals may also be included to encourage a thorough understanding of the subject area as a whole. The Academic Decathlon math curriculum is unrelated to the theme and focuses on standard high school math topics.

The topics of the events are known a year in advance of the national competition, which gives students time to prepare for the competition season. Generally, language and literature focuses on one or more books or plays and multiple poems or other shorter works of literature, while the art and music competitions feature selected works with that students must familiarize themselves with. Other subjects, such as economics, have a curriculum that remains largely the same from year to year and encompasses macroeconomics and microeconomics, with only small annual variations that relate to the central theme. Topics in other subjects, such as science and Super Quiz, have their curriculum vary greatly from year to year.

As the competition has evolved, more of the events have been tied into a central theme. For example, in the 2006-2007 season, the theme was China and Its Influence on the World, and some of the themed events are as follows: Language & literature was based upon the featured novel The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck, as well as several poems by Chinese poets from different time periods and Western poems influenced by China. Economics focused on the market economy of China as well as basic economics. Art emphasized Chinese artwork throughout China's history; seventeen of the featured pieces were located at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. The other piece was a work of architecture in Beijing, China. Music covered traditional Chinese music, instruments, and musical genres, the influence of Western music on Chinese music, and the influence of Chinese music on Western music. Twenty-seven pieces showing Chinese music (instruments, tuning, style, etc.) were featured. Social Science introduced the history of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Topics included the founding and first years of the People’s Republic, Mao and Maoism, the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, and the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. It also covered a brief history of the Chinese dynastic periods. The Super Quiz topic was "An Introduction to Climatology," and the Super Quiz curriculum has a climate case study on China.

For the 2007-2008 season, the theme is The Civil War, and the events will be as follows: Language & Literature is based on the novel The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane, as well as six shorter selections. Economics focuses on the fundamentals of economics and includes a section focused on slavery and the economy of the Civil War. Art focuses on 19th-century American art, including a study of 18 selected artworks. Music covers the music of the Civil War era, including a CD featuring 14 listening selections. Science focuses on the transmission, prevention, and treatment of infectious diseases, and includes a case study on infectious diseases during the Civil War. The Super Quiz topic (for this season, Social Science) focuses on certain aspects of the Civil War, including the causes of the war, critical battles, slavery's role in the war, Lincoln's leadership, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the Reconstruction following the end of the war.

The curricular theme for 2008–2009 will be Latin America, with a focus on Mexico in certain subject areas. The Super Quiz topic will be An Introduction to Evolutionary Biology, and the Super Quiz Resource Guide will include readings on such topics as the historical development of evolutionary theory, Darwin’s voyages and work in Latin America, natural selection, speciation, mutation, gene flow, genetic drift, and evolutionary developmental biology. The language and literature curriculum will include critical reading, one novel, and six shorter works. The featured novel will be Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya. The art curriculum topic will be An Introduction to the Art of Mexico. The music curriculum will focus on the music of Latin America and will include a companion CD, featuring fourteen listening selections. The social science curriculum will focus on the history of Mexico. The economics curriculum will cover fundamentals of economics, including general topics in macro- and microeconomics and international trade and global economic development. The economics curriculum will also include a thematic section focused on the economy of Mexico. The math curriculum will cover topics in the fields of general math, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and differential calculus.

[edit] Super Quiz

The competition format of the Super Quiz differs from that of the other subject areas. While students take one written test in each of the other six subjects, they will take two tests in the Super Quiz subject: one written and the other oral. The oral relay portion of the Super Quiz is the only part of the actual testing that is open to the public, and thus is one of the most memorable and exciting parts of the Academic Decathlon competition.

The oral relay is a quizbowl type competition, where students have seven seconds to answer a question. The student’s oral Super Quiz score accounts for 40 percent of his/her overall Super Quiz score. The student’s written Super Quiz score accounts for 60 percent of his/her overall Super Quiz score. During the Super Quiz Relay, there are typically nine rounds of competition, with one student per team competing on the stage and responding to questions at any given time. Each student is then responsible for answering five questions. In some states, however, there are only three rounds of competition, with three students per team competing onstage and each student is responsible for responding to ten questions.

The Super Quiz Relay questions are read aloud to the audience and are printed or projected for the competitors. After the questions and answers are read, the students are allowed seven seconds to respond. The Super Quiz Relay portion of the Academic Decathlon has long been regarded as the most exciting aspect of the competition since parents and friends are welcome to watch and cheer for their competitors.

[edit] Study materials

USAD publishes study materials for all the events. The sale of these materials supports USAD economically. USAD has gone from publishing no materials, to publishing materials for all the subjects, to currently having a part of the questions drawn from independent research and the rest coming from the USAD materials.

USAD’s Study Guide contains detailed topical outlines in each subject area. These outlines indicate specifically which topics in each subject area will require independent research beyond the USAD Resource Guides. USAD offers Resource Guides in art, economics, language and literature, music, social science / science, and Super Quiz. Whereas the Super Quiz Resource Guide is a compendium of previously published articles, the other Resource Guides are written by individual writers under contract with USAD. The Resource Guides aim to assist students in their study of the topics listed in the subject area outlines.

USAD also offers Basic Guides in art, economics, language and literature, math, and music. Whereas the Resource Guides focus on the specific topics listed in this year’s subject area outlines, the Basic Guides offer a reference that can be used by teams year after year to study fundamental subject matter information. USAD offers Research Guides in art, music, and social science. The Research Guides offer comprehensive coverage of all independent research topics in art, music, and social science, except for those topics that already receive coverage in the USAD Basic Guides (i.e., art fundamentals and basic elements of music theory).

[edit] Scoring Procedure

Each of the Academic Decathlon’s ten events is evenly weighted at 1000 points per competitor for a possible 10,000 point total. However, only six scores per team are counted for the team ranking, (top two Honor, top two Scholastic, and top two Varsity). So the highest possible team score is 60,000.

Five of the objective tests (those in art, economics, language and literature, music, and science/social science) have 50 items. The raw score for these tests is converted to 1000 points with each item worth 20 points. The math test has 35 items with each item being worth 40 points.

The essay is scored based on a rubric. Each essay is independently read twice. If there is a divergence of more than 200 points in the two scores, the essay is read and scored by a third judge. The third score replaces the divergent score. The two scores are averaged for the final score.

Super Quiz has both a written component and an oral component. The written test will have 40 items worth 15 points each that counts for 60 percent of the total score. In the oral relay, each student will answer five questions worth 80 points each of which will count for 40 percent.

Gold, silver and bronze medals are awarded in each event and for each category (Honor, Scholastic, and Varsity). All ties are awarded. Team overall ranking is determined by the six team members that receive the top two scores in each category (Honors, Scholastic, and Varsity). For Super Quiz Overall, the team ranking is also determined by the six team members with the top two scores in each of the three categories.

A few students have managed to break 9,000 points in Decathlon history, and James E. Taylor High School was the first school in USAD history to break 50,000 at a national competition. It still holds the record for the two highest scores in Decathlon history. In competitive states, an average individual gold-medal score typically ranges between 7,500 and 8,500, and state winning team scores are usually around 45,000 to 50,000 (7,500 to 8,000 for each member on average). National champion scores typically range between 48,000 and 53,000.

[edit] Participation

There are three official levels of competition: regional, state, and national, with top finishers advancing to the next level. Regional competitions only exist in states with relatively large numbers of teams competing. Additionally, many large states have school, multi-school, or citywide unofficial competitions for practice. In the 2006–2007 season, 39 states sent teams to the national finals. Arkansas and South Dakota have joined in for the 2007–2008 season, as well as Oregon, who joins for the first time since 2003–2004, bringing the total number of participating states to 42.

[edit] Nationals winners

The 2008 event is planned to be held the week of April 30, 2008 in Garden Grove, California. Previous winners of the competition are listed in the table below:

[edit] Trivia

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

• The Moorpark High School team of 2008 has the record for highest score in the history of USAD, scoring 53,119.4 at the national competition.
• The schools with the most National Titles are J.J. Pearce High School of Richardson, Texas and El Camino Real of Woodland Hills, California, both claiming five championships since the competition began.
• J.J. Pearce High School is the only school to have achieved a National Championship "Hat Trick" of sorts, winning three in a row during the 1980s. Pearce is also one of the few schools to have won the National Championship every time the school has made it to nationals, but the last time it qualified for nationals was in 1991.^{[citation needed]}
• Moorpark High School's 2007 Team is the only school in USAD history to get 60 out of 60 questions correct on the floor Super Quiz Event. At 2008's National competition, Moorpark blew everyone away by scoring an absolutely astounding 5,940 points on the overall Super Quiz - a mere four written questions from a perfect score. Note: at most State Championships, as well as at Nationals, a perfect Super Quiz Relay score is 45 out of 45 questions.
• Waukesha West High School, from Wisconsin is the only team from outside the states of Texas and California to win an overall national title. They took this surprise underdog win in 2002, their first trip to the national competition. They have returned and placed within the top three overall every year since.
• 2008 proved to be a phenomenal year record-wise. Isabel Salovaara of Whitney Young High School was the first of the year to break the high score record with a stunning 9,300 points at the Chicago City competition. At the national competition, David Haughney of Waukesha West High School equaled that score and Sophy Lee of Pearland High School and Alli Blonski, also of Waukesha West, both beat Salovaara's score, by 4 and 21 points, respectively.^[1]

[edit] References

1. ^ http://www.gmtoday.com/news/local_stories/2008/May_08/05032008_11.asp

[edit] External links

• USAD - The official website of United States Academic Decathlon