Academic Decathlon to Get New Curriculum

Bowing to criticism from coaches across the country, the board of directors of the U.S. Academic Decathlon announced Saturday its decision to overhaul the competition’s curriculum, publish fewer study guides and lower the cost of practice materials for next year’s contest.

During a meeting at the DoubleTree Hotel on Friday, the board also pledged to incorporate more critical thinking questions into the exams and to improve the quality of the tests.

“Last year, we didn’t quite deliver the mission we set out to deliver,” said Frank Wurtzel, president-elect of the board. “We needed to refocus the program on independent research.”

The board made its decision in the midst of the national finals of the Academic Decathlon. About 400 students, representing 38 teams from across the country, are here for the 19th annual academic competition. The new national champion will be announced today at an awards banquet at the San Antonio Convention Center.

Ventura County’s Simi Valley High School is currently among the top three contenders, along with teams from Texas and Wisconsin. On Friday, the Simi Valley decathletes won the Super Quiz, a game-show-style event in the overall competition.

Controversy about the nation’s premier high school academic competition has angered many educators.

The coaches of the last two national champion schools--Moorpark in Ventura County and El Camino Real in Woodland Hills--quit in protest last year. Others threatened to follow suit if decathlon officials did not make changes for next year’s contest.

Coaches nationwide recently protested that curriculum guides published by the organization were filled with errors, cost too much and encouraged rote memorization rather than higher-order thinking.

Many started letter campaigns and sent signed petitions to the national organization.

As a result, the national organizers assembled a task force in March to review the criticisms and concerns. The task force, which included coaches, state directors and U.S. Academic Decathlon officials, sent their recommendations to the board.

Some coaches, however, expressed their support for the guides, saying schools with fewer resources were at a disadvantage without them. They also argued that it’s easier to recruit student team members with the guides.

While student teams took tests here Friday during the national finals, board members reviewed the task force report and voted unanimously to make curriculum changes, according to Wurtzel. On Saturday, board members met with state directors and released their decisions.

U.S. Academic Decathlon will publish an outline for the entire program by May 15. It will also create art slides, music CDs and complete guides for four subjects: music, literature, science and the Super Quiz.

The organization will eliminate the guides for math, economics and art. For those subjects, detailed outlines will be available Aug. 1.

In the four topics that have guides, half of the test questions will be drawn from those guides and half will be developed from other sources. The price of the curriculum materials will be reduced by 25%.

When the contest began, the costs were minimal, coaches said. Now, most teams spend between $800 and $1,000 to be competitive. This year, the set of seven curriculum guides cost $495, the practice tests cost $295 and the online tests cost $195.

National Executive Director James Alvino also said the organization planned to improve the quality of the guides and to increase the number of outside experts to proofread the tests.

The U.S. Academic Decathlon threw out two questions in this year’s contest, one in math and one in the Super Quiz, because of problems with the answers.

Judy Combs, director of the California Academic Decathlon, called the board’s decision to change the curriculum a “step in the right direction.” She said she would continue to work closely with county directors and coaches on the implementation of the changes.

“Looking at the entire state of California, it is a good compromise,” said Combs, who served on the task force. “I am delighted that the compromise has been met, but I am realistic enough to know it’s not going to satisfy everyone.”

Larry Jones, who quit coaching Moorpark High School’s team after its victory at the national finals last year, is one of the coaches unsatisfied by the board’s decision. Jones sought to do away with all curriculum guides.

“It’s not a compromise,” Jones said. “They still make their money and they disregarded the input of what I think are valuable educators.

“When the students had to do the outside research, that was a full-time job,” he said. “When the students got the guides and had to memorize all the material, that was a full-time job. This is twice as much work for students.”

The board and the task force will each review the changes at the end of the year, officials said. Wurtzel said his goal is to expand and improve the program, and he hopes the changes will do just that.

“This strikes a greater balance,” he said. “It’s a good satisfactory resolution that meets the concerns of a lot of different people who are committed to the program.”