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points by division (was Re: low points at Kings)

(other stuff deleted)

> I went through and checked my points after reading her post
> and found indeed they were lower than usual: Novice average-24 (24.49),
> JV average -25 (24.75), Open avg-27 (27.32).  Please note that I said
> perhaps especially for Novice and JV debaters.  

(other stuff deleted)

(1) Threshold
> conversions--All debaters do not start with the same score from me.  Open
> debaters start 26-27, JV debaters start 25-26, novice debaters start at
> 25.  If they do good things however, any of them can get a 30.  If they do
> bad things at a performance levels, Open goes as low as 23, JV as low as
> 21 and novice as low as 18.  If they are rude, curse or act
> disrespectfully  (and i m pretty loose) 15s are not out of the question.

(the rest of will's comments deleted)

this post brings to the front of my mind an issue which has been brewing 
for a while. why do some follks give lower points in jv than in varsity 
and lower still in novice? there seems to be no rationale for this. 
debaters should be judged on norms assigned by division. obviously a 
novice debater should not be expected to be able to defend the legitimacy 
of a plan inclusive cp, but if a novice debater can in an organized 
manner extend and defend a da against the 2ac attack than the debater is 
doing a good job. that debater shouldn't be judged more harshly, because 
there is no reasonable expectation that they would do as good a job as a
varsity debater on the same issue.

the main reason that i think this issue should be addressed is for 
speaker awards. with some judges giving 24s for a great novice speech, 
and some giving 29s, without using judge variance when giving out awards, 
some deserving debaters are going to get ripped because they had judges 
that didn't operate from the same set of assumptions.

what do others think? 

John Niedfeldt-Thomas

Essential Information			|   Internet:	jthomas@essential.org
Archive created by Jonathan Stanton (jonathan@cs.jhu.edu)
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