A Slice with 'Dice

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 with the rise of early college experiences like Advanced Placement, dual enrollment, and concurrent credit. Rather than treating accumulated credits as a fast track to graduation, this episode reframes them as a form of academic margin—space that allows students to double major, study abroad, pursue internships, and explore disciplines without the constant pressure of efficiency. 

At the center of the conversation is a fundamental question: are we designing systems that push students to finish faster, or ones that allow them to experience more?

Editor's Note:  This is an encore presentation of an episode released earlier this season that fits alongside the bigger discussions of early college experiences.

For additional thoughts from Corey, visit coreyalderdice.com.

You can also follow him on Twitter/X, LinkedIn, BlueSky, YouTube, Instagram, and Threads.

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 are often treated as secondary experiences.

Corey Alderdice, a national voice on talent and transformation, explores what Cook Out’s “chaotic abundance” can teach us about the future of education, the importance of environments that grant students permission to imagine larger futures for themselves, and why the schools students remember most are often the ones that make life feel expansive rather than simply efficient.

For additional thoughts from Corey, visit coreyalderdice.com.

You can also follow him on Twitter/X, LinkedIn, BlueSky, YouTube, Instagram, and Threads.

As dual enrollment and concurrent credit continue expanding across the country, public conversations often focus on what students and families save through accelerated college pathways. But beneath the promise of affordability and access sits a more complicated question: who absorbs the actual cost of delivering college-level education at scale?

Corey Alderdice, a national voice on talent and transformation, explores the growing financial pressures that widespread acceleration places on colleges and universities — especially community colleges increasingly carrying much of the operational burden of concurrent credit expansion. Drawing on recent research and the policy implications of Arkansas’s ACCESS Act, this episode examines why sustainable funding structures matter not only for institutional stability, but for preserving the quality, advising, support, and meaningful learning experiences that make acceleration worthwhile in the first place.

For additional thoughts from Corey, visit coreyalderdice.com.

You can also follow him on Twitter/X, LinkedIn, BlueSky, YouTube, Instagram, and Threads.

Parenting today can feel less like raising children and more like managing a complex, always-on operating system. Between achievement pressure, emotional labor, enrichment culture, and the invisible logistics of modern family life, many parents are beginning to ask whether childhood has become too optimized for everyone involved.

Corey Alderdice, a national voice on talent and transformation, explores the rise of the “Beta Mom” conversation and what it reveals about burnout, parenting as performance, over-managed childhoods, and the growing search for balance in modern family life. Drawing connections to achievement culture, resilience, and the operational realities of parenting, this episode examines why many families are pushing back against the invisible parenting Olympics—and what young people may actually need most as they grow toward independence.

For additional thoughts from Corey, visit coreyalderdice.com.

You can also follow him on Twitter/X, LinkedIn, BlueSky, YouTube, Instagram, and Threads.

As dual enrollment and early college programs continue expanding across the country, educational systems often assume that academic readiness and institutional readiness are largely the same thing. But a recent WestEd report examining the “arc” of dual enrollment suggests that access alone does not guarantee students will successfully navigate the unfamiliar cultural, relational, and institutional expectations surrounding college-level learning.

Corey Alderdice, a national voice on talent and transformation, explores the difference between opportunity and institutional fluency, why many students struggle even after gaining access to accelerated pathways, and how the future success of “college before college” may depend less on expanding enrollment and more on building the human infrastructure — mentorship, guidance, belonging, and institutional translation — that helps students truly thrive once they arrive.

For additional thoughts from Corey, visit coreyalderdice.com.

You can also follow him on Twitter/X, LinkedIn, BlueSky, YouTube, Instagram, and Threads.

For many former speech and debate students, rigorous disagreement doesn’t feel hostile. It feels energizing. Collaborative. Even connective. But what happens when the communication instincts forged in competitive forensics collide with leadership, relationships, and real-world organizational culture?

Corey Alderdice, a national voice on talent and transformation, explores the hidden “shadow side” of debate and forensics culture through a deeply personal reflection on intellectual sparring, rhetorical intensity, and the challenge of recalibrating communication beyond the tournament room. Drawing on his own experiences in competitive speech and debate, Corey examines how environments built around critique, clash, and pressure-testing ideas can shape leadership habits long after the ballots are gone. 

From the difference between sharpening ideas and overwhelming people to the realization that not everyone experiences disagreement as collaboration, this episode explores the tension between rigor and reassurance, argument and trust, and the evolution from rhetorical skill to relational wisdom.

For additional thoughts from Corey, visit coreyalderdice.com.

You can also follow him on Twitter/X, LinkedIn, BlueSky, YouTube, Instagram, and Threads.

Dual enrollment and early college programs are often associated with already high-achieving students, but some of the strongest research findings suggest acceleration may have its greatest impact on students who historically have had the least access to advanced educational opportunities. As states continue expanding early college pathways, the more important question may not simply be how many students participate, but who benefits and why.

Corey Alderdice, a national voice on talent and transformation, explores the relationship between acceleration and educational equity, why opportunity often changes trajectories long before it changes statistics, and how dual enrollment can either reinforce existing inequalities or become one of the most powerful talent-development tools available within public education.

Learn more about how dual enrollment outcomes are increasingly being evaluated through predictive “momentum metrics” in the report Dual Enrollment Momentum Metrics: Leading Indicators for Program Improvement.

For additional thoughts from Corey, visit coreyalderdice.com.

You can also follow him on Twitter/X, LinkedIn, BlueSky, YouTube, Instagram, and Threads.

Americans still celebrate debate as a cornerstone of democracy, yet healthy disagreement feels increasingly rare in modern life. As algorithms reward outrage, certainty, and performance over curiosity and persuasion, the ability to thoughtfully engage opposing ideas may be becoming an endangered skill.

Corey Alderdice, a national voice on talent and transformation, explores the evolving role of debate culture in education and civic life, reflecting on his own background in competitive speech and debate while examining why the habits of inquiry, evidence, emotional regulation, and intellectual resilience matter more than ever in an age shaped by social media, polarization, and AI-generated persuasion.

For additional thoughts from Corey, visit coreyalderdice.com.

You can also follow him on Twitter/X, LinkedIn, BlueSky, YouTube, Instagram, and Threads.

As dual enrollment expands across the country, the conversation is beginning to shift from simple access and participation toward a more complicated question: how do we determine whether acceleration is truly working? A newly released research report from Columbia University’s Community College Research Center offers an important glimpse into how policymakers and institutions are beginning to answer that question through “momentum metrics” tied to college enrollment, persistence, and completion.

Corey Alderdice, a national voice on talent and transformation, explores the promise and limitations of data-driven accountability in education, the growing influence of dashboards and measurable outcomes, and the deeper tension between what educational systems can easily quantify and the far more human dimensions of learning, curiosity, growth, and meaning that often resist measurement altogether.

Learn more about how dual enrollment outcomes are increasingly being evaluated through predictive “momentum metrics” in the report Dual Enrollment Momentum Metrics: Leading Indicators for Program Improvement.

For additional thoughts from Corey, visit coreyalderdice.com.

You can also follow him on Twitter/X, LinkedIn, BlueSky, YouTube, Instagram, and Threads.

A free pizza for finishing a book may seem simple, but it was part of a larger effort to spark reading at a time when literacy was a growing national concern.

 Corey Alderdice, a national voice on talent and transformation, reflects on Pizza Hut’s Book It! program, blending personal memories with a deeper look at how novelty, joy, and clear incentives can motivate students—especially in an era where attention is increasingly shaped by screens.

For additional thoughts from Corey, visit coreyalderdice.com.

You can also follow him on Twitter/X, LinkedIn, BlueSky, YouTube, Instagram, and Threads.