News and Updates

Houstonfest Scholarships

Gail Cope Scholarships at State

Plays will be performed at Houstonfest

Changes to rules and critique sheets for 2010

Scholarships for winning research papers at State

Daily log of changes to state-qualifier list

Important Dates

Mar. 5, 2010:  Houstonfest Scholarship applications due

Mar. 10, 2010:  Gail Cope Scholarship applications due

Jan. x, 2011:  Early-bird registration ($8) must be postmarked and online registration must be submitted by 11:59 p.m.

Jan. x, 2011:  Regular registration ($10) must be postmarked and online registration must be submitted by 11:59 p.m.

Feb. 5, 2011:  Houstonfest, Lanier Middle School, Houston

Feb. x, 2011:  State early-bird registration due (submit online registration and mail payment; payment must arrive by Feb. x)

Feb. x, 2011:  State regular registration due

Feb. 26, 2011:  Texas State German Contest, University of Texas at Austin

Changes to Rules and Critique Sheets

Effective in 2010

Added Jan. 28, 2010:  The following sentences about the number and type of sources required in Research Paper were added in January 2010 by the State steering committee:  "You must use at least two sources, at least one of which must be non-Internet.  If five or more sources are used, at least two must be non-Internet sources."  Because of the late notice, students will not be penalized at Houstonfest or the other regional contests if they do not adhere to this rule.  However, research papers at State will be judged according to the new rule, so it is recommended that winners at the regional contests bring their papers into compliance with the new rule before State if they were not already in compliance.

At the meeting of the State Steering Committee in December 2009, the following changes were agreed upon.  All the changes related to individual events are now reflected in the rules and critique sheets posted on this website.

• On the critique sheets for Poetry and Prose Memory/Reading, the reference to the "literary value" of the selection was deleted from judging criterion #1.

• In the rules and on the critique sheet for Skit, it has been made more explicit that costumes and props may be used but are not required.

• In the rules for Vocal Solo, schools are now allowed to enter as many as three competitors.  (Apparently, Houstonfest had previously been deviating from the practice in the other regions by allowing only two competitors per school.)

• The rules and critique sheet for Folk Dance were altered.

  • It is now specified that groups must perform at least four dances.  There is no maximum number of dances, but the 15-minute maximum time limit still applies, so as a practical matter, it would be difficult to perform more than six.

  • The procedure for calculating the points awarded for the difficulty of the dances was also changed:  instead of adding up the difficulty scores for each dance (maximum 50 if the group did five Level III dances), now the difficulty scores for all the dances a group performs will be averaged, and the average then multiplied by 5.  In the past, groups performing fewer than five dances were disadvantaged; now, the playing field will be more level for groups performing four, five, or more dances, because all groups can earn the maximum of 50 points regardless of whether they perform four, five, or more dances (as long as all those dances are Level III).

  • The descriptions of what constitutes a Level I, II, or III dance were adjusted slightly.  Groups should understand that certain difficult elements will have to be present in order for a dance to be classified as Level III.  The State judges have felt in the past that many groups were claiming certain dances as Level III but leaving out the difficult elements in their performances.  Thus, simply having written documentation that classifies a dance as Level II or III is not sufficient to earn the 6 or 10 difficulty points; the judges must see evidence in the actual performance that justifies the documented classification.

• It is likely that students will have to show identification (school ID card, driver's license, etc.) when they report for individual events at State.  Stay tuned for more details.  For now, this will not apply at the regional level.

• An effort will be made at State to post the results spreadsheet online before we depart from the UT campus.  Teachers and students who want to find out who placed 6th through 10th in the various events would thus be able to access that information on the way home if they had a laptop with wifi, Blackberry, iPhone, etc.  At Houstonfest, teachers who want the results spreadsheet right away may come up to the stage at the END of the awards ceremony and copy it from the director's laptop onto a flash drive.  (Of course, in order to access it before arriving home, one would need to have access to a laptop computer.)