What three years built.
A program model, a network of partner schools, a public library that any school in the country can use, and the evidence base to justify all of it. This page is the inventory, dated, so anyone can check it.
Figures as of September 14, 2026. Reach figures from CUDL program records; content counts from this site.
Reach
What the network looks like in the 2026-27 season.
Enrollment is the combined enrollment of partner schools, not the number of active debaters. CUDL does not publish participation counts or results by school.
The public library
Everything below is free to any student, coach, or school, partner or not, and every item is dated.
Plus 8 articles, a tournament tracker, a topic archive, a research bibliography, and the CUDL Guide.
The model
Six things a program needs. We supply all six, in the school, at no cost.
Coaching in the building
A CUDL coach in the school every week, during the day or after it, teaching the curriculum on this site.
Materials
Topic primers within two weeks of every NSDA release, sample cases, block files, and flow sheets.
Competition access
Registration, entry fees, judges, and transportation for CUDL-supported tournaments, with a pathway to districts and the state championship.
Teacher training
The sponsoring teacher learns to run practice so the program outlives any single coach.
Judges
Volunteers trained before every tournament, so partner schools meet judge quotas and students get written feedback.
Evidence
Every claim about outcomes traced to a peer-reviewed study on the research page, reviewed each season.
Year by year
The milestones. Years for the grant and sponsors are being confirmed against CUDL records.
- 2023
Founded
First Title I partner schools in Charlotte-Mecklenburg; in-school coaching begins.
- 2024
First tournaments, first guides
First CUDL-supported local tournaments; the first Lincoln-Douglas and Public Forum guides published.
- 2025
Institutional support
Ally Bank, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and Alight Solutions join as supporters and sponsors; CUDL receives an Economic Opportunity Grant. Coach and judge guides published.
- 2026
Twenty-plus schools and the full library
Guides for all ten events, the case archive, the evidence library, the curriculum, twelve practice tools, the tournament tracker, the communities map, judge training, and the CUDL Guide. The Charlotte Urban Debate League becomes a public resource as well as a local program.
The work, in pictures
Coaching, research, practice rounds, and tournament weekends.
Help build the next three years.
Every partner school, every tournament entry, and every guide on this site is funded by supporters.