KarunaNews Story

At Middle School 50 in Brooklyn, New York, principal Benjamin Honoroff and his students are pumped to start the day — a dramatic transformation from a decade ago. "We were on a list of persistently dangerous schools, and there'd been some pretty drastic enrollment decline from over a thousand students to 160 students. But he integrated debate into every class, across all grade levels, and expanded the debate team. A third of the students enrolled with a select group travel to tournaments. Debate is infused into every subject, including math. Within a few years, test scores started to rise, enrollment increased and the debate team started to win. Proficiency scores, which had been in the single digits, jumped up to 60% in English and 70% in math, Honoroff said. "There's a deep, deep pride in this school as a community hub. It's inspiring every day to walk down the block and have people say, I went to that school and, you know, keep it going, keep it going," Honoroff said.