Blue: The Business of You

What Readiness Really Looks Like

Stories and insights from students, parents, educators, and employers.

✍️ Written by the Blue team • Published on Medium

We Have Transcripts for What Students Finished. Where’s the Record of Who They Became?

We’ve been doing a lot of mock interviews with high school students lately, and there is one moment that keeps happening.We’ll ask something pretty standard: “Tell me about a time you solved a problem

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Spider-Man’s College Essay Isn’t About Being Spider-Man

We spend a lot of time telling students what a good college essay should do.Be authentic. Show growth. Use your voice. Tell a story. Reflect. (Solid advice.)The problem is that none of it tells a stud

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Please Stop Helping Your Kid Pick the Most Impressive College Essay Topic

Try this with your high school senior.Ask them which college essay they’d rather read:A student writes about winning a state championship.Or a student writes about why nobody else in their family is a

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Ted Lasso, Seven Carrots and the Missing Piece of Career Readiness

First an introduction: Meet Marnie — Co-author of Lead it Like Lasso, former math teacher, and exited CEO/Co-founder of Lifecycle Insights — Marnie’s superpower is that she can find a leadership lesso

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90% of Students Have a Plan. So Why Do Only 58% Feel Ready?

We stopped when we saw a new Gallup study of Iowa students in grades 5–12.Ninety percent could name clear goals for their future.Great.Except only 58% said they felt prepared for life after high schoo

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Career Readiness Is About to Have a Measurement Problem

For a long time, we had a pretty tidy way of deciding whether a high school student was ready for what came next.Did they graduate? Did they have the credits? Were the grades good enough?Easy to count

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EdTech Built What Schools Asked For. Now We Need to Build What Students Need.

“What is inspected is what is expected.”Spend a few minutes inside almost any school district’s college and career readiness platform, and you can see exactly what we expect.Credits earned. Assessment

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Your Students Graduated. Your System Succeeded. Did They?

Does This Sound Like Your Kid?They do what is asked. They earn the credits, complete the assignments, join a few activities and stay on track to graduate.Then someone asks, “What makes you stand out?”

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The College Essay is TRYING to Save You Money

Most parents think the college essay is just another admissions hoop. Fair enough. It pops up in the application, has a deadline, a word count, and sits right alongside transcripts and recommendation

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The Career May Turn to Jell-O. The Learning Shouldn’t.

Why career pathways should help students understand who they are becoming, not just where they might work.A student chooses a pathway because it looks solid.Health sciences. Cybersecurity. Business. E

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