by Hans Villarica, Education Writer

American educators agreed last year that argumentative reasoning should be taught in schools when those in most states adopted the new Common Core State Standards a state-led effort to establish educational benchmarks to prepare kindergarten through 12th grade students for college and career. Reaching a similar consensus on how to teach the art of arguing, however, hasn’t been as easy. But a new study published in the journal Psychological Science could offer a solution in the form of dialogue.

Leadership in Argument-Centered Education has worked with teachers and administrators on argumentalizing classroom instruction to raise rigor and college-directedness in a swath of states and localities, with Chicago being clearly the largest site.   This school year, though, ACE has entered into its first contracted partnerships with schools in the largest school system in the nation.

Welcome to the launch of The Debatifier, an education blog administered by Argument-Centered Education. The name comes from our term ‘to debatify’ – which means, to infuse argumentation and debate into curriculum in order to produce energy, engagement, and college-directed thinking and literacy skills.

Eighteen high school and middle school teachers from 11 schools across the city of Chicago took part in the Summer 2015 Argument-Centered Education Teachers College for two weeks in July. The Teachers College was held for four-hours daily and hosted by Bogan High School. Teachers received professional development credit, and some were paid by their schools for attending.