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. USAD contests are held in 42 states.^[1] It consists of ten events, which include seven tests, two performance events and an essay. It was started by Dr. Robert Peterson in Orange County, California for local schools in 1968, but was expanded to a nation-wide competition in 1981^[2].

Academic Decathlon teams consist of nine members, who are divided in three categories based on grade point average: Honors (3.75 - 4.0 GPA), Scholastic (3.00 - 3.74 GPA), and Varsity (0.00 - 2.99 GPA). Each team member competes in 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, and individual and team winners are recognized. Teams advance through local, regional, and state levels of competition, with state champions competing at the national level.

[edit] Team makeup and eligibility

The USAD is unique in terms of the breadth of knowledge and diversity of teams that it requires. It requires students that fall into three categories specified by GPA. The Honors category is composed of students with GPAs between 3.75 and 4.0. The next category, the Scholastic category, is made of students with GPAs between 3.0 and 3.74. The final group, the Varsity category, is made of students whose GPA range from 0.00 to 2.99. USAD uses a modified GPA scale in which "performance-based" classes such as music, art or physical education are omitted from the GPA calculation. Additionally, a grade counts for face value regardless of whether or not it is advanced placement, honors, regular or remedial classification. ^[3]

A team typically consists of 9 competitors: three honors, three scholastic and three varsity. However, since only the top two scores in each category are counted, a team can compete with as little as six students.

It is possible for students to compete in a higher category than the one they would be assigned to, but generally it is to the students' advantage to compete in the lowest category they can. This is because the scores in Varsity are typically lower than those in Scholastic, and those in Scholastic are typically lower than those in Honors. For instance, a student with a GPA of 2.8 would normally compete in the Varsity category, but could compete in Scholastic or Honors if his team placed him there. Conversely, an Honors student would not be able to compete in the Varsity category.^[3]

[edit] Events

As in an athletic decathlon, USAD has ten events. They are art, economics, essay, interview, language & literature, mathematics, music, science, social science, and speech.^[4] Each year, a different subject is chosen for Super Quiz, which uses a slightly different format than the other events (see Super Quiz). The topics and theme of the competition are released in March of every year,^[5] which gives students time to prepare for the competition season.

The events are split up into two groups: the seven objective written tests (Art, Economics, Language and Literature, Math, Music, Science and Social Science) and the three subjective events (Essay, Interview and Speech). They are designated as such because the former seven are multiple choice tests, whereas the latter three are graded by judges. Students are given half an hour to answer each multiple choice exam. These exams consist of 50 questions with the exception of Math and Super Quiz which have 35 and 40 questions respectively.

[edit] Objective Events

Section from the Book of the Dead of Nany from the 2004-05 curriculum. Students were to memorize such esoteric facts as knowing that the whole scroll is 17 feet long, Nany was a ritual singer for Amen-Ra and that her coffin was a hollow wooden sculpture of Osiris.^[6]

In general, the objective events follow a set organizational outline from year to year. Language and Literature focuses on a main novel or a set of plays in addition to multiple short selections which tend to be poems or excerpts from poems. The Art and Music competitions have compiled selections of pieces that students must familiarize themselves with. Economics is largely static every year with 85% of the subject focusing on macroeconomics and microeconomics.^[7] The remaining 15% relates to that year's curriculum. For example, in 2005 where the theme was Exploring the Ancient World, this 15% dealt with the economics of ancient Egypt and Rome. The Math curriculum has remained constant since 2002 dealing with general math, geometry, trigonometry, and differential calculus. Science and Social Science are completely variable from year to year and depend on that year's theme.

[edit] Subjective Events

The subjective events each have a separate set of rules, and allow the students far more creativity than the objective subjects. In the Speech event, Decathletes are expected to deliver a prepared speech with a duration of 3.5–4 minutes, and give a 1.5–2 minute impromptu speech. One minute is made available to prepare for this impromptu speech which must be based on one of three random topics. Examples include, "Why is light, light and dark, dark?", "It has been said about our modern times that, 'Invention is the mother of necessity.' Please discuss.", and "Math has been described as the universal language. Discuss". In the Interview event, the students are asked a wide variety of questions in a formal environment. Such questions range from, "Who is your role model?" to, "How would you alert someone that their zipper is down?". In order to discourage favoritism, the interviewers are not allowed to ask what school the Decathlete attends. 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, those topics are obtained from the Language and Literature and Super Quiz material, although topics can be obtained from other events as well.

[edit] Themes

Each year, the events are tied together by a central theme. For example, the 2008–2009 theme will focus on Latin America, with an emphasis on Mexico. Specific topics are as follows:

• Language and Literature is based on the novel Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya, as well as six shorter selections.
• Art will center around the art of Mexico with such artists as Miguel Cabrera and Diego Riviera.
• Music covers the music of Latin America featuring 14 tracks including works by Manuel de Zumaya and Silvestre Revueltas.
• Social Science will focus on the history of Mexico.
• Economics will focus on the economy of Mexico.
• The Super Quiz will cover an introduction to evolutionary biology, the historical development of the evolutionary theory, natural selection, speciation, mutation, gene flow, genetic drift, and evolutionary developmental biology. There will also be information on Darwin's voyages, as well as his work in Latin America to tie in to the theme.^[5] These questions are read aloud to the audience and are printed or projected for the competitors. The students face away from the audience during the relay to discourage audience members from cheating. After the questions and answers are read, the students are allowed seven seconds in which they have to select the correct answer. Their answer is corrected on the spot by a judge, and their score is immediately displayed to the audience. This portion of Academic Decathlon has long been regarded as the most 'fun,' since parents and friends are welcome to watch, as schools cheer for their competitors.

[edit] Topics, past and present

Visualization of the various routes through a portion of the Internet. In 2002, the Super Quiz topic was the internet.

[edit] Study materials

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USAD publishes study materials for all the events, with the sale of the materials supporting the program. 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 (IRT's) and the rest coming from the USAD materials. USAD publishes two types of materials:

• Resource Guides in each subject, for those parts of the curriculum that are not drawn from independent research. USAD offers Resource Guides in art, economics, language and literature, music, social science / science, and Super Quiz.
• Basic Guides, for some of the independent research topics that remain the same from year to year. (Examples: math, economics, art and music theory.)

[edit] Cheating and biases

There have been some cases of cheating in the history of the decathlon, the most notable being the 1995 Illinois state finals, in which Steinmetz High School was able to secure copies of the test in advance and defeat perennial powerhouse Whitney Young Magnet High School^[8]. This was dramatized in the movie Cheaters. If suspected of cheating, the team will have to take a retest of a similar difficulty, or face disqualification.

Often rival schools will claim cheating or unfair treatment after losing. One such incident involved ex-Catholic Memorial HS coach John Burke who "[conveyed] false information to the public, to Wisconsin Academic Decathlon and National Academic Decathlon officials". Additionally, he repeatedly attacked another school's pupil through allegations of cheating and ineligibility. ^[9] This particular incident resulted from Catholic Memorial losing to rival Waukesha West High School at the Wisconsin state level competition in 2002.

Since part of the Super Quiz event takes place on a stage in front of an audience and other teammates, there have been instances of cheating occurring at all levels. In order to prevent this, USAD officials have asked that competition venues either have students sit with their back to the crowd or position lighting in such a way that students cannot see the crowd.

[edit] Scoring and winning

Gold medal earned at the Nebraska State competition.

Each event is worth 1,000 points, with a theoretical maximum individual score of 10,000. For the 50 question tests, each question is worth 20 points each. The Interview and Speech events are graded by a team of judges (usually three, although it is not uncommon for competitions to have two judges), whose scores are averaged to give a maximum of 1000 points per event.^[10] The Mathematics event contained 25 questions, but beginning with the 2005 National competition, the number of questions was increased to 35.^[11] The Super Quiz written test contains 40 questions, each worth 15 points. The oral Super Quiz contains either 5 or 10 questions (depending on the state director), each worth 80 or 40 points respectively.

The Essay is graded with a rubric, and it is read by two different judges, whose scores are then averaged. If the difference between the judges' scores differs by 200 points or more, then a third reader is asked to grade the student's essay, and the two closest scores of the three are averaged to give the student's score.^[10] In more prolific states, a competitive individual 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.

States with large numbers of schools competing may have district and regional competitions, with winners advancing to the state finals competition. State winners advance to the national finals, which are hosted in different states from year to year.

Perfect scores of 1,000 in events are recorded regularly, and in some cases there have been 30+ way ties at the national competition because of perfect and near perfect scores. This phenomenon was common in the math event before 2005, and was the main reason for the increase in the number of math questions.

Grading programs are available both from the USAD company and independent programmers to facilitate scoring and awarding of medals.

[edit] Participation

There are four official levels of competition: local/scrimmage, regional, state, and national (Rounds 1, 2, 3, and 4 respectively). With the exception of round 1, only top finishers advance to the next level. Regional competitions only exist in states with relatively large numbers of teams competing, and as such some states - e.g. Montana^[12], Missouri^[13], Oregon^[14] - do not require a regional competition. Additionally, many large states have local scrimmages using the Round 1 tests, but these are largely for practice and do not determine whether a team can compete at the regional level which uses Round 2 tests. In 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 2009 event is planned to be held April 22–25, 2009 in Memphis, Tennessee. 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 all-time high scorer is Alli Blonski (9,321.2) obtained at the 2008 national competition competing for Waukesha West HS.
• 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. In addition, Moorpark High School's team achieved the highest overall Super Quiz score in history at the time, scoring 5745 out of 6000. This score has only been beaten by El Camino Real at the 2007 Nationals Competition. (NOTE: Not all competition formats follow the 60 question relay format, some use 45 or 30 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.

[edit] References

1. ^ United States Academic Decathlon : Participating States (html). United States Academic Decathlon. Retrieved on 2008-06-07.
2. ^ United States Academic Decathlon : History (html). United States Academic Decathlon. Retrieved on 2008-06-07.
3. ^ ^{a b} United States Academic Decathlon : Eligibility Guidelines (html). United States Academic Decathlon. Retrieved on 2008-06-07.
4. ^ United States Academic Decathlon : Overview (html). United States Academic Decathlon. Retrieved on 2008-06-07.
5. ^ ^{a b} United States Academic Decathlon : Curriculum Topics and Theme (html). United States Academic Decathlon. Retrieved on 2008-06-07.
6. ^ (2004) Art Resource 2004-2005. USAD Press, 19. 
7. ^ United States Academic Decathlon : Economics Curriculum Outline (html). United States Academic Decathlon. Retrieved on 2008-06-07.
8. ^ Johnson, Dirk. "Academic Competitors at a Chicago School Now Admit Cheating", New York Times, 13 April 1995. 
9. ^ Hetzner, Amy. "Decathlon board speaks out on coach's discipline", Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 31 May 2003. 
10. ^ ^{a b} Arizona Academic Decathlon Coach's Handbook (doc) 21. Arizona United States Academic Decathlon. Retrieved on 2008-06-07.
11. ^ United States Academic Decathlon : Math Curriculum : Math Increase Announcement (html). United States Academic Decathlon. Retrieved on 2008-06-07.
12. ^ United States Academic Decathlon : 2008 Nationals Champs! (html). United States Academic Decathlon. Retrieved on 2008-06-07.
13. ^ USA Funds (26 February 2008). "Kansas Academic Decathlon Challenges Outstanding Students From Two States". Press release. Retrieved on 2008-06-07.
14. ^ Oregon Academic Decathlon: Results (html). Oregon Academic Decathlon. Retrieved on 2008-06-07.

[edit] External links

• USAD - The official website of United States Academic Decathlon
• DemiDec - A third party company providing supplemental materials for schools
• Message board - Academic Decathlon related message board
• ADSIC - "AcaDec Scores and Information Center" - A compilation of Regional, State, and Nationals competition scores