United States Academic Decathlon
The United States Academic Decathlon (USAD; often abbreviated to AD, Acadeca, Acadec, AcDec, or AcDc) is one of the premier academic competitions for high school students in the United States. It consists of seven multiple choice tests, two performance events and an essay. The ten-event academic program strives to foster a greater respect for knowledge, to promote wholesome inter-school academic competition, and to further develop student communication skills. The Academic Decathlon was created by Dr. Robert Peterson in Orange County, California for local schools in 1968 to provide opportunities for students to experience the challenges of rigorous team and individual academic competition. The competition was expanded to a nation-wide competition in 1981. The Academic Decathlon emphasizes the personal and academic growth of each student who, by meeting the challenges with honesty and integrity, can reap the rewards of greater self-knowledge and self-confidence for the future. Currently there are 42 states participating in the Academic Decathlon.
A unique aspect of the Academic Decathlon is that it is designed to include students from all academic abilities and achievement levels. Academic Decathlon teams consist of nine members, who are divided in three categories based on grade point average: Honors (3.75–4.0 GPA), Scholastic (3.00–3.74 GPA), and Varsity (0.00–2.99 GPA). Each team member competes in all ten events against other students in his/her division. Overall team scores are calculated using the top two individual scores from each division. Gold, silver, and bronze medals are awarded for each individual event as well as total scores. Individual and team winners are recognized. Teams advance through local, regional, and state levels of competition to earn a spot at the national event which is held either in April, or May. Only state champions compete at the national level.
History
1968–2000
The Academic Decathlon was formed in 1968 by Dr. Robert Peterson, superintendent of schools in Orange County, California.[1] The inaugural competition was held December 1968, and played host to 103 students.[2] From this point to 1979, only regional contests were held, but as early as 1969 there was a push to make the competition state-wide.[3] In 1979 the competition was made to include the entire state of California[4] and two years later, the United States Academic Decathlon Association was formed. In April 1982, the first United States Academic Decathlon national competition was held. Palo Alto, representing California, competed against schools from all around the country, including Reno High School from Nevada and Pleasure Ridge Park High School from Kentucky.[5] Despite being established in 1981, USAD did not include most states until the 1983–1984 school year.[4][6][7]
The original Academic Decathlon was organized far differently from how it is today. Initially the ten events were Economics, Essay, Fine Arts, Interview, Language & Literature, Math, Science, Social Science, Speech and Super Quiz. It was not until 1998 that Fine Arts was split into its two constituent tests: Art and Music. [8] Due to the division of the Fine Arts event, Super Quiz now had to take the place of one of the subjects each year. In 1998, Super Quiz replaced, for the first and last time, Economics; 1999 and 2000 both featured Science-based Super Quizzes, and 2001 and 2002 both featured a Social Science-based Super Quiz. From 2003 to the present, the Super Quiz has alternated between Science and Social Science.
In addition to shuffling subjects around, USAD has changed the amount of personal research required by students. From the Academic Decathlon's inception until the 1998–1999 season, students performed all their own research for each event. As such, test writers did not have to base their questions on material USAD published. However, this policy changed with the beginning of the 1999–2000 school year. It was now required that all test questions come strictly from USAD supplied materials. This changed the way tests had to be written which resulted in a number of new records being set across the country.[9][10][11] That year at nationals, James E. Taylor High School produced the phenomenal score of 52,470, the highest team score the country had yet seen.[12]
2000–2001
The 2000–2001 season witnessed a large number of changes to USAD. Most notable was the resignation of the program's executive director, James Alvino. This followed a large amount of controversy surrounding a religious article Alvino had written and had included in that year's Super Quiz Resource.[13]. In addition to the loss of the program's director, USAD saw some radical changes in the organization of the curriculum as USAD once again changed their testing policies. 50% of test questions were to come from USAD published materials and 50% were to come from other unspecified sources.[14] Additionally, USAD changed the focuses of Economics and Math. For the previous 19 years Economics had focused on macro and microeconomics and Math tested a student's knowledge of algebra, geometry, and trigonometry. However, in 2001, Economics was changed to have a focus on business organizations and profiles in individual enterprise, while Math revolved around "Gateways to Logical Thinking," which spotlighted logic and set theory, numbers, combinatorics and probability, and applications. [15] These three large changes on top of a particularly difficult Music curriculum led to a plummet in scores. The national winner that year, El Camino Real High School, scored 5,923 points less than the score put up by James E. Taylor High School the previous year. It is the second lowest score ever recorded by a winner of the National competition. The 2000–2001 season was also significant in that it was the first year that allowed states to send two schools to the national competition: the large school champion and the small school champion. Due to logistical problems, this practice was discontinued after the 2002 season. Instead, a small school e-Nationals was introduced in 2005 which then led to the formation of a medium school e-Nationals two years later.
2002–Present
The 2001–2002 season brought stability for the Academic Decathlon. That year the current system for organizing the curriculum was instituted: guides were published for each objective event with 75% of the test questions coming from these guides and 25% being independent research. This is also the year that saw the Super Quiz begin its tradition of alternating between Social Science and Science. Since 2002, the only significant change the program has seen is increasing the number of Math questions from 25 to 35 in 2005[16] and the change in calculator policy in 2007.[17] Previously, graphing calculators were not allowed during the Math event.
Team makeup and eligibility
The USAD is unique in terms of the breadth of knowledge and diversity of teams that it requires. Teams must have students that fall into three categories specified by GPA. The Honors category is composed of students with GPAs between 3.75 and 4.0. The next category, the Scholastic category, is made of students with GPAs between 3.0 and 3.74. The final group, the Varsity category, is made of students whose GPA range from 0.00 to 2.99. USAD uses a modified GPA scale in which "performance-based" classes such as music, art or physical education are omitted from the GPA calculation. Additionally, a grade counts for face value regardless of whether or not it is advanced placement, honors, regular or remedial classification. [18]
A team typically consists of 9 competitors: three honors, three scholastic and three varsity. However, since only the top two scores in each category are counted in calculation of the team total score, a team can compete with as few as six students. Students may compete in a higher category than the one they are assigned to, but generally it is to the students' advantage to compete in the lowest category they can. This is because the scores in Varsity are typically lower than those in Scholastic, and those in Scholastic are typically lower than those in Honors. For instance, a student with a GPA of 2.8 normally competes in the Varsity category, but has the ability to compete as a Scholastic or Honors. Conversely, an Honors student cannot compete as a Scholastic or a Varsity.[18]
Participation
There are four official levels of competition: local/scrimmage, regional, state, and national (Rounds 1, 2, 3, and 4 respectively). With the exception of Round 1, only the top finishers in each Round advance to the next level. Regional competitions only exist in states with relatively large numbers of teams competing, and as such some states — e.g. Montana[19], Missouri[20], Oregon[21] — do not require a regional competition. Additionally, many large states have local scrimmages using the Round 1 tests, but these are largely for practice and do not determine whether a team can compete at the regional level which uses Round 2 tests.[22] In the 2006–2007 season, 39 states sent teams to the national finals. South Dakota joined in for the 2007–2008 season, as well as Oregon, who joins for the first time since 2003–2004, bringing the total number of participating states to 42.[23]
Events
As in an athletic decathlon, USAD has ten events. They are Art, Economics, Essay, Interview, Language & Literature, Math, Music, Science, Social Science, and Speech.[24] Each year, one of the ten subjects is chosen as the Super Quiz, which uses a slightly different format than the other events (see Super Quiz). The topics and theme of the competition are released in March of every year,[25] which gives students time to prepare for the competition season.
The events are split up into two groups: the seven objective written tests (Art, Economics, Language and Literature, Math, Music, Science and Social Science) and the three subjective events (Essay, Interview and Speech). They are designated as such because the former seven are multiple choice tests, whereas the latter three are graded by judges. Students are given half an hour to answer each multiple choice exam. These exams consist of 50 questions, with the exception of Math and Super Quiz that have 35 and 40 questions respectively.
Objective events
In general, the objective events follow a set organizational outline from year to year. Language and Literature focuses on a main novel or a set of plays in addition to multiple short selections which tend to be poems or excerpts from short stories. The Art and Music competitions have compiled selections of pieces that students must familiarize themselves with. Economics is largely static every year with 85% of the subject focusing on macroeconomics and microeconomics.[27] The remaining 15% of the event relates to that year's curriculum. For example, in the 2005 theme "Exploring the Ancient World", this 15% dealt with the economics of ancient Egypt and Rome. The Math curriculum has remained constant since 2002 dealing with general math, geometry, trigonometry, and differential calculus. Science and Social Science are completely variable from year to year and depend on that year's theme.
Subjective events
The subjective events each have a separate set of rules, and allow the students far more creativity than the objective subjects. In the Speech event, a 3.5–4 minute long prepared speech is delivered followed by a 1.5–2 minute impromptu speech.[28] One minute is made available to prepare for this impromptu speech, which must be based on one of three random topics. Examples include, "Why is light, light and dark, dark?", "It has been said about our modern times that, 'Invention is the mother of necessity.' Please discuss.", and "Math has been described as the universal language. Discuss". In the Interview event, the students are asked a wide variety of questions in a formal environment. Such questions range from, "Who is your role model?" to, "How would you alert someone that their zipper is down?". In order to discourage favoritism, the interviewers are not allowed to ask what school the Decathlete attends.[29] In the Essay event, students are given 50 minutes to write a well-organized essay responding to one of three or more prompts derived from the year's curriculum. Usually, these topics are obtained from the Language and Literature and Super Quiz material, although topics can be obtained from other events as well.[30]
Themes
As the competition has evolved, more of the events have been tied into a central theme. Past themes have included Communication and Culture, Space Exploration, and Understanding Others. The 2008–2009 theme is Latin America, with an emphasis on Mexico. Language and Literature is based on six short selections as well as the novel Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya. The Art topic will focus on the art of Mexico featuring, among others, the artists Miguel Cabrera and Diego Riviera. Music covers the music of Latin America featuring 14 tracks including works by Manuel de Zumaya and Silvestre Revueltas. Social Science and Economics focuses on the history and economy of Mexico respectively. The Super Quiz covers an introduction to evolutionary biology, the historical development of the evolutionary theory, natural selection, speciation, mutation, gene flow, genetic drift, and evolutionary developmental biology. Information is included on Darwin's voyages, as well as his work in Latin America to tie in to the theme.[25]
Super Quiz
The competition format of the Super Quiz differs from that of the other subject areas. It was added in 1969 to add a championship feel to culminate the event.[31] The Super Quiz consists of a 40 question multiple choice test as well as an oral relay. This is generally referred to as the Super Quiz Relay, where students answer a number of questions in front of an audience. The number of oral Super Quiz questions tends to vary by state, but ultimately account for 40% of the overall Super Quiz score. Nebraska is an exception however, where the relay counts for 100% of the Super Quiz score due to the 40 question multiple choice test not being included.
The Super Quiz Relay is unique in that it is the only event viewable to the general public. The relay starts with the varsity students answering their questions first. The scholastic division follows with the honors students going last. Each group of students is given 5 or 10 questions, depending on the format decided by the State Coordinator.[32] These questions are read aloud to the audience and are printed or projected for the competitors. The students face away from the audience during the relay to discourage audience members from cheating. After the questions and answers are read, the students are allowed seven seconds in which they have to select the correct answer. Their answer is corrected on the spot by a judge, and their score is immediately displayed to the audience. The Super Quiz Relay portion of the Academic Decathlon has long been regarded as the most exciting aspect of the competition since parents and friends are welcome to watch and cheer for their competitors.
Topics, past and present
| Year | Topic |
|---|---|
| 2009 | Latin America |
| Super Quiz: | Evolutionary Biology |
| 2008 | History of the Civil War |
| Super Quiz: | The Civil War |
| 2007 | China and Its Influence on the World |
| Super Quiz: | An Introduction to Climatology |
| 2006 | The European Renaissance: Renewal and Reform |
| Super Quiz: | The European Renaissance: Renewal and Reform |
| 2005 | Exploring the Ancient World |
| Super Quiz: | From Empty Space to Incredible Universe–The Sky Is Not the Limit |
| 2004 | America: The Growth of a Nation |
| Super Quiz: | The Lewis and Clark Expedition |
| 2003 | Understanding the Natural World |
| Super Quiz: | The Blue Planet: Beneath the Surface |
| 2002 | Understanding Others |
| Super Quiz: | E-communication: The Internet & Society |
| 2001 | Understanding the Self |
| Super Quiz: | Concepts of the Self: Philosophy, Psychology, and Religion |
| 2000 | Looking Forward: Creating the Future |
| Super Quiz: | Sustainable Earth |
| 1999 | Looking Inward: Developing a Sense of Meaning |
| Super Quiz: | The Brain |
| 1998 | Looking Outward: Forces Shaping Society |
| Super Quiz: | Globalization: The New Economy |
| 1997 | Communication and Culture |
| Super Quiz: | The Information Revolution |
| 1996 | Competition and Cooperation |
| Super Quiz: | The United Nations: Competition and Cooperation |
| 1995 | Health, Wellness, and Biotechnology |
| Super Quiz: | Biotechnology: The Next Frontier |
| 1994 | Documents of Freedom |
| 1993 | A Diversity of Achievers |
| 1992 | Habitat Earth |
| 1991 | Space Exploration |
| 1990 | American Indians: Our American Heritage |
| 1989 | The U.S. Presidency |
| 1988 | The History of Flight |
| 1987 | We The People: The Constitution of the United States |
| 1986 | Immigration to the United States |
| 1985 | Futurism-Megatrends |
| 1984 | The Olympic Games |
Study materials
USAD publishes study materials for all the objective events (no material is introduced regarding Essay, Interview or Speech), with the sale of the materials supporting the program. USAD has gone from publishing no materials, to publishing materials for all the subjects, to currently having a part of the questions drawn from independent research with the rest coming from the USAD materials. USAD publishes a variety of study materials, with the most important being the Resource Guides, and the Basic Guides. An art reproduction booklet and music CD are also issued and contain that year's relevant pieces. Study Guides are published as well and contain detailed topical outlines for each objective subject. These outlines specifically indicate which topics in each subject area will require independent research beyond the Resource Guides.
Resource Guides are offered in Art, Economics, Language and Literature, Music, Science / Social Science, and Super Quiz. The Super Quiz Resource Guide is a compendium of previously published articles, whereas the other Resource Guides are written by individual writers under contract with USAD. The Resource Guides aim to assist students in their study of the topics listed in the subject area outlines. As an example, in 2003 the Music topic was Romantic music. Subsequently the Music Resource Guide focused on the development of Romantic music, its characteristics and the influence of the Classical era on the Romantic era. A large part of the guide focused on information about that year's composers: Beethoven, Berlioz, Rossini, Chopin, Mendelssohn, Verdi, Mussorgsky, Wagner, Bizet, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Mahler and Strauss.[33] Similarly, the Art topic being studied was Romantic art in the European tradition. The Art Resource Guide followed by focusing on the lives and works by relevant artists such as Joseph Mallord William Turner, Claude Monet, Albert Bierstadt,and Camille Pissarro.[34]
Basic Guides are issued for the independent research topics that, unlike the Resource Guides, remain the same from year to year. The Art Basic Guide focuses on art fundamentals, looking at the elements of art, principles of composition and different 2-d and 3-d processes and techniques. Additionally, a brief introduction to art history is included that focuses largely on Western civilization.[35] The Economics Basic Guide reviews fundamental economic concepts in addition to the basics of macro and microeconomics. The Language and Literature Basic Guide provides students with a basic grounding in the analysis of literature, as well as introducing a slew of key terms such as synecdoche, metonymy, assonance, and aphorism. The Math Basic Guide offers a general overview of major topics in high school math, including algebra, geometry, trigonometry, calculus, and statistics. The Music Basic Guide starts off introducing the student to topics in music theory such as harmonics, rhythm, tempo and the circle of fifths. It also includes information on a wide variety of instruments and a brief history of Western style music.[36]
Scoring and winning
Each of the Academic decathlon’s ten events is evenly weighted at 1,000 points per competitor for a possible 10,000 point total. However, only the top scores from each division are counted for the overall team score. So the highest possible team score is 60,000. With the exception of Math and Super Quiz, the objective tests have 50 items. The raw score for these tests is converted to 1,000 points with each question worth 20 points. The Math event has 35 items breaking down to 40 points per question. The Super Quiz written test contains 40 questions, each worth 15 points. The oral Super Quiz contains either 5 or 10 questions (depending on the state director), each worth 80 or 40 points respectively.
The Interview and Speech events are graded by two to three judges. The scores from the judges are averaged to give a maximum of 1,000 points per event. The Essay is graded with a rubric, and it is read by two different judges whose scores are then averaged. If the difference between the judges' scores differs by 200 points or more, then a third reader is asked to grade the student's essay. The two scores that are closest in value are averaged to give the final score.[37]
A benchmark for the Decathlon elite is obtaining an individual score of over 9,000 points. It was not until 1992, 24 years after the program's inception, that Tyson Rogers achieved this feat at the National competition. Since then, numerous students have broken the 9,000 point barrier. The current highest individual score by a student is 9,321.2, put up by Alli Blonski from Waukesha West, Wisconsin at the 2008 national competition.[38] In more prolific states, a competitive individual score typically ranges between 7,500 and 8,500, and state winning team scores are usually around 45,000 to 50,000. National champion scores typically range between 48,000 and 53,000 points. The current highest team score was achieved by the 2008 Moorpark team at the national competition. They scored 53,119.4, an average of 8853.2 points per individual.
Gold, silver and bronze medals are awarded in each event and for each category (Honors, Scholastic, and Varsity). All ties are awarded medals. Team overall ranking is determined by the six team members that receive the top two scores in each category. The Super Quiz Overall team ranking is determined by the top two scores in each of the three categories. Perfect scores of 1,000 in events are recorded regularly, and in some cases there have been 10+ way ties at competitions because of perfect and near perfect scores.[39] This phenomenon was common in the math event before 2005, and was the main reason for the increase in the number of math questions.[16]
Nationals winners
The 2009 event is planned to be held April 22–25, 2009 in Memphis, Tennessee. Previous winners of the competition are listed in the table below[40]:
| Year | Location | Winner | State | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Omaha, Nebraska | TO BE ANNOUNCED | TO BE ANNOUNCED | TBA |
| 2009 | Memphis, Tennessee | TO BE ANNOUNCED | TO BE ANNOUNCED | TBA |
| 2008 | Garden Grove, California | Moorpark, Moorpark | California | 53,119.4 |
| 2007 | Honolulu, Hawaii | El Camino Real High School, Woodland Hills | California | 52,148.4 |
| 2006 | San Antonio, Texas | William Howard Taft High School, Woodland Hills | California | 51,659.7 |
| 2005 | Chicago, Illinois | El Camino Real, Woodland Hills | California | 49,009.4 |
| 2004 | Boise, Idaho | El Camino Real, Woodland Hills | California | 50,656.8 |
| 2003 | Erie, Pennsylvania | Moorpark, Moorpark | California | 51,423.5 |
| 2002 | Phoenix, Arizona | Waukesha West, Waukesha | Wisconsin | 48,871.0 |
| 2001 | Anchorage, Alaska | El Camino Real, Woodland Hills | California | 46,547.0 |
| 2000 | San Antonio, Texas | James E. Taylor, Katy | Texas | 52,470.0 |
| 1999 | Orange County, California | Moorpark, Moorpark | California | 50,225.0 |
| 1998 | Providence, Rhode Island | El Camino Real, Woodland Hills | California | 52,131.0 |
| 1997 | St. George, Utah | James E. Taylor, Katy | Texas | 52,260.0 |
| 1996 | Atlanta, Georgia | J. Frank Dobie, Houston | Texas | 49,835.0 |
| 1995 | Chicago, Illinois | John Marshall, Los Angeles | California | 49,935.0 |
| 1994 | Newark, New Jersey | W.H. Taft, Los Angeles | California | 49,372.0 |
| 1993 | Phoenix, Arizona | Plano East, Plano | Texas | 47,485.0 |
| 1992 | Boise, Idaho | J. Frank Dobie, Houston | Texas | 49,710.0 |
| 1991 | Los Angeles, California | J.J. Pearce, Richardson | Texas | 48,946.0 |
| 1990 | Des Moines, Iowa | Lake Highlands, Richardson | Texas | 46,627.0 |
| 1989 | Providence, Rhode Island | W.H. Taft High School, Woodland Hills | California | 45,857.0 |
| 1988 | San Antonio, Texas | J.J Pearce, Richardson | Texas | 46,669.0 |
| 1987 | Irving, Texas | John Marshall, Los Angeles | California | 49,369.0 |
| 1986 | Los Angeles, California | J.J. Pearce, Richardson | Texas | 46,435.0 |
| 1985 | Los Angeles, California | J.J. Pearce, Richardson | Texas | 46,976.0 |
| 1984 | Los Angeles, California | J.J. Pearce, Richardson | Texas | |
| 1983 | Los Angeles, California | Palo Alto, Palo Alto | California | |
| 1982 | Los Angeles, California | Palo Alto, Palo Alto | California |
Medium School E-Nationals
The Medium School E-Nationals competition began in 2008, and follows the same guidelines and patterns of competition as the Small School E-Nationals. The Medium School competition is for schools with more than 650 but no more than 1300 students.[41]
| Year | Winner | State | Score (out of 48,000) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Duarte High School | California | 33,067 |
Small School E-Nationals
The small school e-nationals competition began in 2006 for schools with 650 or fewer students. It consists of 8 events: Art, Economics, Essay, Language and Literature, Math, Music, Science/Social Science, and Super Quiz. The competition is done online to make execution and organization of the event easier. The absence of Speech and Interview from the competition logically follow this distance-testing scenario.[42]
| Year | Winner | State | Score (out of 48,000) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | University High School | California | 34,514 |
| 2007 | University High School | California | 31,470 |
| 2006 | St. Johns High School | Arizona | 29,538 |
Cheating and biases
There have been some cases of cheating in the history of the decathlon, the most notable being the 1995 Illinois state finals. Steinmetz High School was able to secure copies of the tests in advance and which led to the defeat of perennial powerhouse Whitney Young Magnet High School[43]. This was dramatized in the movie Cheaters. If suspected of cheating, the team will have to take a retest of a similar difficulty, or face disqualification.
Often rival schools will claim cheating or unfair treatment after losing. One such incident involved ex-Catholic Memorial HS coach John Burke who "[conveyed] false information to the public, to Wisconsin Academic Decathlon and National Academic Decathlon officials". Additionally, he repeatedly attacked another school's pupil through allegations of cheating and ineligibility. [44] This particular incident was spurred by Catholic Memorial's loss to their in-state rival Waukesha West High School at the Wisconsin state competition in 2002. Waukesha West went on to be the only school outside of Texas and California to win Nationals.
The Super Quiz Relay takes place on a stage in front of an audience, and as such easily lends itself to cheating. In order to prevent this, USAD officials have asked that competition venues either have students sit with their back to the crowd or position lighting in such a way that students cannot see the crowd.
References
- ^ Caldwell, Tanya (2006-03-13). "L.A. High Wins State Decathlon Super Quiz". L.A. Times. pp. B3.
- ^ "103 Participate in pioneer project". L.A. Times. 1968-12-06. pp. D2.
- ^ Seelye, Howard (1969-12-11). "Statewide Academic Decathlon Urged". L.A. Times. pp. E7.
- ^ a b "About Texas Academic Decathlon". Texas Academic Decathlon. Retrieved 2008-07-06.
- ^ "1982 Nationals". Retrieved 2008-07-06.
- ^ "Alumni Page". Nebraska Academic Decathlon. Retrieved 2008-07-07.
- ^ "Academic Decathlon". Wisconsin Academic Decathlon. Retrieved 2008-07-07.
- ^ "1998 Curriculum". United States Academic Decathlon. Retrieved 2008-07-06.
- ^ Wolcott, Holly J. (2000-02-07). "Simi High Advances to State Contest in Academic Decathlon; Education: Defending national champion Moorpark High places second at county level, but may compete further as a wild-card selection". L.A. Times. pp. B9.
- ^ Hetzner, Amy (2000-03-11). "Waukesha's Catholic Memorial makes it a four-peat in Academic Decathlon, School sets state record for points, looks forward to national competition". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
- ^ "State_Records". Wisconsin Academic Decathlon. Retrieved 2008-07-07.
- ^ Bakalis, Anna (2008-03-10). "Moorpark wins state academic decathlon". Ventura County Star. Retrieved 2008-08-04.
- ^ Raisin, Amy (2000-09-20). "Academic Resignation Decathlon Head Leaves Amid Dispute Over Article". Daily News.
- ^ "Program Materials". United States Academic Decathlon. Retrieved 2008-07-07.
- ^ "2001 Curriculum". United States Academic Decathlon. Retrieved 2008-07-07.
- ^ a b "United States Academic Decathlon : Math Curriculum : Math Increase Announcement". United States Academic Decathlon. Retrieved 2008-06-07.
- ^ Petrie, Joe (2007-11-13). "Sharpen Your Pencils, Academic Decathlon is Back". Waukesha Freeman.
- ^ a b USAD Study Guide 2003-2004. United States Academic Decathlon. 2003. pp. 6–7.
- ^ "United States Academic Decathlon : 2008 Nationals Champs!". United States Academic Decathlon. Retrieved 2008-06-07.
- ^ "Kansas Academic Decathlon Challenges Outstanding Students From Two States" (Press release). USA Funds. 26 February 2008. Retrieved 2008-06-07.
- ^ "Oregon Academic Decathlon: Results". Oregon Academic Decathlon. Retrieved 2008-06-07.
- ^ "California Academic Decathlon Website". California Academic Decathlon. Retrieved 2008-08-04.
- ^ "United States Academic Decathlon : Participating States". United States Academic Decathlon. Retrieved 2008-06-07.
- ^ Erwin, Erica (2006-4-30). "Erie Team Snares Silver". Erie Times-News (PA). p. 1.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ a b "United States Academic Decathlon : Curriculum Topics and Theme". United States Academic Decathlon. Retrieved 2008-06-07.
- ^ Art Resource 2004–2005. USAD Press. 2004. p. 19.
- ^ "United States Academic Decathlon : Economics Curriculum Outline". United States Academic Decathlon. Retrieved 2008-06-07.
- ^ "Speech Orientation Packet" (pdf). California Academic Decathlon. Retrieved 2008-08-04.
- ^ "Interview Orientation Packet" (pdf). California Academic Decathlon. Retrieved 2008-08-04.
- ^ "Essay Reader Packet" (pdf). California Academic Decathlon. Retrieved 2008-08-04.
- ^ Luo, Michael (1999-03-11). "Academic Decathlon Returns to Its Orange County Roots; Education: High school competition started there in 1968. Now, 35,000 students nationwide participate". L.A. Times. pp. Metro-3.
- ^ "United States Academic Decathlon : Essential Information". United States Academic Decathlon. Retrieved 2008-06-07.
- ^ Music Resource 2002–2003. USAD Press. 2002. p. 2.
- ^ Art Resource 2002–2003. USAD Press. 2002. p. 2.
- ^ Art Basic Guide. USAD Press. 2003. p. 2.
- ^ Music Basic Guide. USAD Press. 2003. pp. 7, 11, 16, 23, 28–36.
- ^ "Arizona Academic Decathlon Coach's Handbook" (doc). Arizona Academic Decathlon. p. 21. Retrieved 2008-06-07.
- ^ Williams, Scott (2008-05-04). "West loses national title by hairbreadth". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Retrieved 2008-07-23.
- ^ "Top 3 Individuals — Mathematics" (pdf). California Academic Decathlon. Retrieved 2008-07-24.
- ^ "USAD National Champs Since 1982" (pdf). California Academic Decathlon. Retrieved 2008-08-03.
- ^ "United States Academic Decathlon : Medium Schools Competitions". United States Academic Decathlon. Retrieved 2008-06-20.
- ^ Vance, Christina (2007-05-05). "University High wins U.S. contest: Fresno students take Academic Decathlon in small schools category". Fresno Bee. Retrieved 2008-07-23.
- ^ Johnson, Dirk (13 April 1995). "Academic Competitors at a Chicago School Now Admit Cheating". New York Times.
- ^ Hetzner, Amy (31 May 2003). "Decathlon board speaks out on coach's discipline". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
External links
- USAD - The official website of United States Academic Decathlon
- DemiDec - A third party company providing supplemental materials for schools
- Message board - Academic Decathlon related message board
- ADSIC - "AcaDec Scores and Information Center" - A compilation of Regional, State, and Nationals competition scores