A Slice with 'Dice

A student’s accomplishments tell us what they’ve had the chance to demonstrate. How much potential remains beyond what we can see? Corey Alderdice, a national voice on talent and transformation, explores why talent is more broadly distributed than opportunity—and what that means for recognizing gifted students from rural, low-income, and first-generation college backgrounds. Through the distinctio...

Families often sort colleges into reach, target, and safety categories based more on reputation and instinct than evidence. But those labels aren't judgments about the colleges themselves—they describe the relationship between an individual student and a particular admissions landscape. Corey Alderdice, a national voice on talent and transformation, explores how families can use admissions pr...

Some of America’s leading universities are outgrowing the idea of calling just one city home. Their expanding campus networks are redrawing the map of higher education—and the opportunities that come with it. Corey Alderdice, a national voice on talent and transformation, explores why institutions like Carnegie Mellon, Vanderbilt, and NYU are building beyond their traditional homes. From attractin...

Students and families often obsess over acceptance rates, GPAs, and test scores as though college admissions exists on one giant national leaderboard. But before admissions officers evaluate the student, they first have to understand the school behind the transcript. Corey Alderdice, a national voice on talent and transformation, explores the overlooked role of the school profile in selective coll...

Families earning $200,000 a year are increasingly being told they qualify for significant college financial aid. That’s both a sign of progress in expanding access — and a startling reflection of just how expensive higher education has become. Corey Alderdice, a national voice on talent and transformation, explores the growing “messy middle” of paying for college: families who make too much to fee...

The undergraduate minor once served a simple purpose: it gave students a structured way to develop depth beyond their primary field of study. As universities move toward more flexible, workforce-oriented degree models, that raises a larger question about what may be lost when intellectual breadth becomes optional. Corey Alderdice, a national voice on talent and transformation, explores the changin...

A political fight over an optional Gender Studies minor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock raises questions that go well beyond one program or one campus. When legislators use the appropriation process to press universities toward particular curricular outcomes, the issue becomes not only what students study, but who gets to decide what belongs in a university. Corey Alderdice, a nationa...

It is possible to like the school your child attends and still distrust public education. A new Gallup survey reveals the gap between local confidence and national dissatisfaction—and asks us to consider what people can actually see. Corey Alderdice, a national voice on talent and transformation, explores how parents form opinions from the schools they know while judging public education through d...

The first month of school is often when the shine wears off and students begin carrying the real weight of routines, expectations, and belonging. For gifted students, the most important conversations may be the ones parents don’t force but make room for—about what is interesting, difficult, lonely, energizing, and still taking shape. In this encore episode, Corey Alderdice, a national voice on tal...

The annual National Merit Semifinalist list offers plenty to celebrate—but far less certainty than we sometimes attach to it. Geographic patterns can reveal real differences in access, preparation, and educational opportunity without serving as a reliable map of where talent—or school quality—actually resides. Corey Alderdice, a national voice on talent and transformation, explores what the Nation...

A school is always larger than the part of it we see most clearly. In the capstone episode of the series, the invitation to “see the whole school” becomes a concrete framework for understanding how the work actually fits together. Corey Alderdice, a national voice on talent and transformation, explores the Proximity and Purpose Continuum for Schools —a model for understanding how student-proximate...

What if the next big reading trend isn’t a formal genre at all, but a certain kind of story built around competence, camaraderie, irreverence, and a surprising amount of heart? From Dungeon Crawler Carl and Project Hail Mary to Murderbot and The Expanse , “Guy-Fi Lit” may be giving new and returning readers a reason to get lost in fiction again. Corey Alderdice, a national voice on talent and tran...

Healthy schools do not choose between the work closest to students and the work that sustains the institution. They learn how to translate between them within the Proximity and Purpose Continuum . Corey Alderdice, a national voice in talent and transformation, concludes the Seeing the Whole School series by exploring the connective work that helps schools become less fragmented and more purposeful...

Uncertainty has a way of disguising itself as a verdict. At the beginning of a new semester—or any unfamiliar season—the fact that we do not yet know what comes next can make us question whether we are capable of meeting it. Corey Alderdice, a national voice on talent and transformation, revisits some unusual commencement advice about watching out for vampires: the doubts, fears, and discouraging...

The work that sustains a school is not always the work people see first. Sometimes the relationships, resources, trust, and stewardship that make student opportunity possible are built long before they become visible. Corey Alderdice, a national voice in talent and transformation, expands the Seeing the Whole School series by examining the stakeholder-proximate work that supports schools over time...

The first semester of college asks students to master far more than academics alone. What if giving them a little room to land could ultimately prepare them to reach even higher? Corey Alderdice, a national voice on talent and transformation, explores the University of Michigan’s decision to cover first-semester grades for students in its largest college. Drawing on two decades of working with tal...

Some truths about a school can only be learned through daily proximity to students. They live in the classroom, the hallway, the advising conversation, the residence hall, the practice space, and the quiet moment when an adult notices that something has changed. Corey Alderdice, a national voice in talent and transformation, continues the Seeing the Whole School series by turning toward the work c...

A Facebook advertisement for a legal subscription service for college students seems like an oddly specific product—until you realize it makes perfect sense. Sometimes the newest products tell us less about the companies selling them and more about the institutions they're built around. Corey Alderdice, a national voice on talent and transformation, explores what the emergence of "colleg...

Every person in a school sees something real. But no one sees the whole school alone. Corey Alderdice, a national voice in talent and transformation, opens the Seeing the Whole School series by exploring how every role in a school comes with a distinct line of sight. Teachers, counselors, coaches, students, families, board members, advancement officers, civic partners, and school leaders each expe...

Every summer, America seems to have the same argument about New York City's elite specialized high schools. But what if the real debate isn't about admissions at all—it's about asking one kind of school to serve two fundamentally different educational missions? Corey Alderdice, a national voice on talent and transformation, explores the decades-long controversy surrounding schools l...

Arkansas may be emerging as one of the nation’s most ambitious laboratories for early college. Through the ACCESS Act, expanded concurrent-credit funding, a statewide goal for more students to earn associate degrees in high school, stronger transfer pathways, and performance-based funding tied to completion, the state is assembling many of the policy elements national researchers now recommend. In...

Each August, schools begin again. As a new year opens, it is worth asking not only what our own work requires, but how that work connects to the responsibilities carried by others. Corey Alderdice, a national voice in talent and transformation, previews Seeing the Whole School , a four-part August series about the interplay between student-proximate work and the broader institutional responsibilit...

Belonging may sound like one of the least controversial ideas imaginable. Yet in recent years, even the language of belonging has become politically charged in schools and institutions across the country. Why? Corey Alderdice, a national voice on talent and transformation, explores how belonging evolved from a relational concept centered on connection and community into a broader cultural flashpoi...

Curiosity isn’t disappearing from higher education—it’s being squeezed by cost, structure, and the pressure to get it right the first time. But what if the very tools designed to accelerate students could instead give that curiosity room to breathe? Corey Alderdice, a national voice on talent and transformation, explores how the argument that colleges have stopped rewarding curiosity intersects wi...

A bizarre internet meme about Cook Out and its legendary tray menu sparks a surprisingly thoughtful reflection on schools, identity, and the environments that shape young people. What begins with the question “What if a main entrée was a side dish?” becomes a deeper conversation about possibility, belonging, interdisciplinary exploration, and why some of the most transformative parts of education...