rigor through scholastic competition

Rigor through

Scholastic Competition

Leon Pfeiffer

Founder and Executive Director, NCASA

Shannon Meyer

Associate Executive Director, NCASA

NCASA

Copyright © 2015. All Rights Reserved.

North Carolina Association for Scholastic Activities

What is a CSP

A Comprehensive Scholastic Program is

analogous to your sports program.

A CSP offers scholastic competitions

and activities in many scholastic areas:

• Language Arts

• Mathematics

• Science

• Social Studies

• Fine Arts

• Cross-Discipline

NCASA



Scholastic Competitions

• Language Arts: The Quill, Poetry Out

Loud, Spelling Bee, Battle of the Books

• Mathematics: MATHCOUNTS, State

Mathematics Contest

• Science: Science Olympiad, Science

Fair, Technology Student Association

• Social Studies: National History Day,

Economics Challenge

• Fine Arts: WPU Show Choir, Art

Showcase, Dance Ensemble

• Multi-Disciplinary: Speech and Debate,

Quiz Bowl, Odyssey of the Mind,

Envirothon, Chess, Twelve

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How your CSP can provide rigor?

Why do you have a sports program in your

schools? All the same reasons apply, but with

a CSP, you gain academic rigor.

• Allows students to explore their passion

• BEST VALUE in enrichment to high

performing students

• Students learn to do self-directed research

and study

• Teaches teamwork, sacrifice, dedication

• Additional recognition for your outstanding

students

• Helps with admission to selective colleges

and scholarship opportunitiesNCASA



How your CSP can provide rigor?

• Engages students at every level of

achievement, EVERY student should have a

skillset that can be valuable to your CSP

• Interscholastic Competitions allow students to

benchmark themselves against well-performing

teams from other schools

How can your CSP provide rigor?

NCASA



Additional

recognition for

your outstanding

students

Meredith Hemphill,

2013 NCASA

Student of the

Year

Forming a CSP in Your School

I’m Ready! Where do I begin?

1 – Find a Champion – someone with a

passion for success. Someone who won’t

take no for an answer!

This is your Scholastic Director

Usually this is an Assistant Principal or

teacher who already coaches a team.

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NCASA



Jason Kline, Myers Park HS AP and Scholastic Director


2 – Get buy-in and support from

administrators.

Why? They will help with:

• Funding Sources (including district-level

funding)

• Perks for coaches

• Marketing the program

• Recognition of teams

• School scheduling opportunities

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NCASA



Kathy Fox, Principal of Jay M Robinson MS of Charlotte


3 – Funding: Identify potential first-year

funding sources and educate them on the

benefits of a CSP. Secure key areas including

NCASA and competition registration, travel,

and essential resources.

- Possible Funding Sources:

- School District

- PTA

- Who funds your sports teams?

- Local businesses

- Key parents

- Direct Solicitation (ask letter)

NCASA




3 – Funding: The most successful schools

and school districts provide stipends for their

scholastic coaches. These stipends make it

much easier for administrators to find

coaches for their teams.

Cumberland County Schools provides about

$6,000 per school for coach stipends,

substitutes, travel, and hosting costs.

Cumberland County won the School District

Cup last year.

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NCASA



2012 Twelve

State Final


4 – Join NCASA, attend NCASA Conference

and Annual Meeting in May

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5 – Engage School Staff

Form a small committee to determine the

competitions in which your school will

participate.

Sell them on the benefits of the program

• Be a salesman!

• Describe the benefits of the program

through the student lens

• Perks for coaches

• Glory to your school!

• Find sponsors / coaches for each

competition

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NCASA



Statesville MS

Art Showcase

team at State

Finals


6 – Market the program to students and

parents

• Build excitement

• Put up posters

• Announce on website, morning meetings

• Host a beginning of the year competition

and club fair and have students express

interest

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NCASA



Lake Norman HS at West Regional Show Choir Competition


7 – Have formational meetings for each team

Engage students in first meeting with

aspects of competition to build excitement

Create a comprehensive calendar for all

school competitions so conflicts can be

resolved well ahead of time.

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NCASA



River Road Middle School of Elizabeth City at 2013 Quiz Bowl State Finals


8 – Distribute funds to teams so they can

obtain resources

Have academic coaches submit predicted

budgets at the beginning of the year

Fundraise to meet unfunded programs and

to provide opportunities for enrichment

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NCASA



Atkins High

School Show

Choir from 2013

Regionals


Before the first competition ends….

9 - Engage key parents to form a

SCHOLASTIC BOOSTER CLUB

This has the same purpose as your athletic

booster club: raise funds to support your

scholastic teams.

Benchmark your athletic booster club, find a

key parent to lead the effort.

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10 – COMPETE!

11 – Celebrate your participation and

successes through websites,

announcements, school board meetings, etc.

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NCASA

•NCASA Competitions:

–Twelve - Show Choir

–The Quill - Art Showcase

–Quiz Bowl - Dance Ensemble

–MS Forensics

•NCSSM Challenge Cup, NCASA Scholastic Cup

•School System Cup

•Current member LEA’s

•Website: www.ncscholastic.org

NCASA 2015



NCASA

•Vision

•Mission

•Board of Directors

•Staff – Shannon Meyer, Associate Executive

Director

•Competitions

•Partners

•Cups

•Membership Fee: $200 + $0.25 per enrolled

student

•50% Discount for LEA’s who register all

secondary schools

NCASA 2015



Twelve

•Topics: Core Curriculum divided into 10 primary

topics, plus two Wildcard topics

•Team: 12 students per team

•Goal: Answer the most questions correctly given

the limited time per round.

•Kick-off: Topics are grouped and wildcard topics

are presented. Coach must assemble students

into four groups of three.

•Play: Questions are shown on screen and read

aloud. After 12 questions, team members

discuss answers and present answer sheet.

NCASA 2015



Twelve MS - Topic Assignments

Group A

1) Math

5) World History

9) Health / PE

Group C

3) Arts and Media

7) Physical Sciences

11) US History

Group B

2) Technology

6) Literature

10) NC Geography

Group D

4) Life Sciences

8) Writing

12) NC Government

Twelve: Sample Competition



12 Minutes Remaining

Twelve – Wildcard Topics

Middle School

• NC Geography

• NC History

• NC Current Events

• NC Sports

• NC State Symbols

• NC Government

• NC Colleges and Universities

• NC Native Americans

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The Quill

•On Demand Writing Competition

•Four students per team, schools may form

Varsity and JV teams

•Sample prompts are on our website, practice

prompts will be distributed to coaches

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The Quill

Middle School Text Types:

• Argumentation

• Narrative

• Informative / Explanatory

• Problem / Solution

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The Quill – Sample MS Prompt

Narrative Writing

“One morning I awoke to find that my _____ was

missing...”

Write a narrative that includes/spins off of this

statement. You have lost something important.

Take the questions that follow into consideration

as you formulate your narrative. What is it? What

lengths will you go to in order to find it? What will

happen if you don’t? Choose an appropriate format

for your creative product: a short story, a poem, a

letter, or another format.

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Quiz Bowl

•Max of 8 players per team – 4 at a time

•Players buzz-in to be the first to answer questions

read by a moderator.

•Team that answers toss-up correctly gets an

opportunity to answer a three-part bonus.

•20 toss-up / bonus questions per match

•Each match lasts about 35 minutes

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Forensics

Middle School Events:

• Humorous Interpretation

• Dramatic Interpretation

• Duo Interpretation

• Original Oratory

• Extemporaneous Speaking

• Public Forum Debate

Each school may have up to three entries per event.

Each school may have up to twelve total entries.

Top ten in each event earn Sweepstakes points.

Rule changes: Top eight scores count towards

Sweeps, Copies of speeches must be submitted at

check-in

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William Peace University

NC Show Choir Competition

NCASA 2015



•Students sing while performing choreographed

dance routines

Art Showcase

• 5-8 students per school compete

• Each student creates their work using a different

medium

•Drawing, painting, print making, collage, sculpture,

photography, computer generated, mixed media

• Students have 7 weeks to create their work based

on the presented prompt or theme

• Students submit photographs of their work for

Regional Competition

• Top individuals and teams will advance to show their

work at the Show Choir Competition State Final

• Individual and Team Awards will be presented

•Example Prompt: “Beauty Discovered”

NCASA 2015



Dance Ensemble

Three events under the Dance Ensemble activity for

middle schools:

- Jazz

- Hip-Hop

- Contemporary / Lyrical

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Harris Road Middle

School

2015 State Champ

Jazz/Hip-Hop

NCSSM Challenge Cup and

NCASA Scholastic Cup

• Analogous to Wells Fargo Cup of NCHSAA

• Points system is nearly identical to Wells Fargo

Cup

• 5 points for participating as a team

• 50 points for first place, 45 points for second place,

etc.

NCASA 2015



NCSSM Challenge Cup and

NCASA Scholastic Cup

•Cup Partners:

–Science Olympiad - National History Day

–Odyssey of the Mind - Cyberpatriots (HS)

–Technology Student Association - Poetry Out Loud (HS)

–Tarheel Forensic League (HS) - Mock Trial (MS)

–NC Chess Association - MATHCOUNTS (MS)

–FIRST Lego League (MS) - Envirothon

–State Mathematics Contest (HS)

–NC Economics Challenge (HS)

–Battle of the Books (MS)

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School System Cup

• Based on the performance of schools in each

school system.

•Small School District: Top MS and HS combined

points

•Medium School District: Top four schools combined

•Large School District: Top eight schools combined

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Current Member LEA’s

• Guilford

• Iredell

• Durham

• Cumberland

• Surry

• Alexander

• Harnett

• Hertford

• Edenton-Chowan

• Cabarrus

• Newton-Conover City

• Elizabeth City – Pasq.

• Mt. Airy City

• Lexington City

• Chatham (HS)

• Thomasville City

• Hickory City

• Alleghany

• Halifax

• Pitt

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Current membership: 276 schools

Findings from NHD Study

National History Day commissioned a study

in 2011 to determine if participation in NHD

improved student performance.

YES, participation improved student

performance.

It stands to reason that similar performance

improvement would also be obtained by

students who participate in other scholastic

competitions.

NCASA



Learn more about NCASA

www.ncscholastic.org

Leon Pfeiffer

[email protected]

919-771-9272

NCASA 2015



http://www.ncscholastic.org/

mailto:[email protected]

rigor through scholastic competition

Education