How DECA role-plays are scored in 2026-27

Knowing how a judge fills in the evaluation form changes how you prepare. The form is printed with your role-play, so nothing about it is secret, and for 2026-27 DECA rewrote it. This guide walks through each part of the new form, what moves a row from one level to the next and how the role-play score combines with your exam.

What changed in DECA role-play scoring this season?

DECA updated the evaluation form for every competitive event in 2026-27. The headline changes for role-plays and case studies:

• One set of levels everywhere. Every rubric now uses the same four levels: Novice, Developing, Proficient and Exemplary.
• A new Solution category that rewards originality and problem solving. You're scored on whether your solution is unique, along with whether it's practical and effective.
• Career Competencies replace the 21st Century Skills that older forms used.
• Five indicators in Team Decision Making, down from seven. Individual Series events stay at five, principles events at four and Personal Financial Literacy at three.

If you learned role-plays from older sample forms, the biggest adjustment is the Solution section. A presentation that explains every indicator well but proposes something vague now leaves real points on the table.

What are the four sections of the evaluation form?

The sample Individual Series role-play that DECA posted with its 2026-27 materials shows the full form. It totals 100 points:

Principles events (four indicators) and Personal Financial Literacy (three) use the same sections. With fewer indicators, the points behind each row change, so check the form attached to your own role-play.

Performance indicators

Each indicator gets its own row, and the row repeats the indicator's exact wording. A judge rates how well you performed that specific task. In the sample form, a 10-point indicator row is scored like this:

Notice that Exemplary is a single number, the maximum. You can't land in the top level with a partial answer. Notice too that half the form, 50 of 100 points, sits in these rows, which is why skipping an indicator is so expensive: an indicator you never address sits in the Novice range no matter how good the rest of your presentation was.

Solution

The three Solution rows ask whether your recommendation is:

• Unique: an original, thoughtful approach rather than the first idea anyone would have.
• Practical: an actionable plan that would work for this business in the real world.
• Effective: a plan that reaches the outcome the scenario asks for.

Each row is worth 8 points, scored 0 to 2 (Novice), 3 to 5 (Developing), 6 to 7 (Proficient) or 8 (Exemplary). These rows are where specifics pay off. "Run a promotion" is hard to call unique or practical. "Run a two-week loyalty promotion at the 12 stores with the lowest repeat visits, staffed by current employees, and compare repeat visits to the other stores" gives the judge something to score.

Career Competencies

The form scores critical thinking, communication and decision making, at 6 points each (0 to 1, 2 to 3, 4 to 5 and 6). The guidelines for each event type list the competencies DECA wants to see, and for Team Decision Making that list includes collaboration as well. On the form, these rows reward the way you reason through the problem, how clearly you explain it and whether you weigh options and consequences before you commit.

Overall impression

The last row covers career readiness: professionalism, poise and confidence. In the Individual Series sample it's worth 8 points. Small habits count here: greeting the judge in role, keeping eye contact, speaking at a steady pace and ending on time.

Where do the follow-up questions fit?

The judge asks follow-up questions after your presentation, inside your time limit. In the sample, there are two, and the judge then thanks you without further comment. There's no separate row for answering them.

Instead, your answers count toward whichever rows they show: a strong answer about rollout supports the Practical row, a clear answer about results supports Effective, and a thoughtful answer can lift an indicator row you only touched briefly. DECA's guidelines describe these questions as a way to make you think beyond the indicators, so treat them as a second chance to score, not an afterthought.

In Team Decision Making, the guidelines say the judge must ask every team the same questions, then may add clarifying questions for your team. Both partners take part in the presentation, and each should answer at least one question.

How does the role-play combine with your exam score?

The form gives a score out of 100, but your event ranking mixes it with your exam:

• Individual Series: the exam and each of the two preliminary role-plays are each one-third of your score. In the final round the role-play counts twice the exam, and the exam score carries forward.
• Principles of Business Administration: the role-play counts twice the Business Administration Core exam, and the exam score carries forward to the finals.
• Team Decision Making: the case presentation counts twice the team's averaged exam score.

So a 10-point gain on the role-play form moves your total far more than 10 points on the exam.

How do you turn the form into a practice checklist?

Because the form is public, you can score your own practice with it. After each practice round, go row by row:

1. For each indicator, find the sentence where you explained it and applied it to the business. No sentence means a Novice score for that row.
2. For Unique, ask whether another competitor would likely say the same thing. If yes, what detail could make yours different?
3. For Practical, check that you said who does what, when, and roughly what it costs.
4. For Effective, check that you tied the plan to the goal in the scenario and said how success would be measured.
5. For the competencies, ask whether you compared at least two options and named a risk.
6. For overall impression, note your pace, filler words and whether you finished with time for questions.

Write down the single row that cost you the most, and make that the focus of your next round. Our step-by-step guide on how to ace a DECA role-play covers the prep routine, and DECA performance indicators explained covers the indicator lists themselves.

How can you practice against the same rows?

CompPrep AI's DECA role-play practice scores each practice round on a sheet laid out like this form: every indicator, the three Solution rows, the Career Competencies and overall impression, each with its level and points, plus the line from your answer behind each score. It's a practice estimate, not an official score, but it shows you which rows to work on. Find your event on the DECA events page.