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

What Licking a Lemon Can Teach You About Your College Essay

Apparently, introverts have more saliva. And possibly more to say than we give them credit for.Somewhere in the history of psychology, someone looked at a lemon and thought, “I wonder if this could te

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5 Things We’ve Learned from Reading College Essays (And What They Tell Us About Teenagers)

We’ve spent the past several weeks reading high school seniors’ college essays. We’ve learned quite a bit about teenagers. We’ve also developed a few concerns about the rest of us.Almost every student

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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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