The efficiency and effectiveness of the nation's human capital pipeline has become a prime area of focus in the policy arena, spurred on by international data that show the U.S. lagging in high school and college completion. For policymakers, education leaders, and even students and parents, it is becoming increasingly clear that the transition between secondary and postsecondary education remains a "dead zone," a place where confusion reigns and dreams die. The high school-college handoff leaves too many students underprepared-- or even unprepared--for what's next, which in turn leads to remediation and attrition. Sealing the cracks in our educational pipeline and thus boosting student success rates means addressing a combination of financial, social, and academic factors. Of these, it is the academic dimension, specifically, the alignment of curricula and standards, that is at once the most intractable and ripest for change. In this article, the author contends that, in order to keep the United States competitive in the race to develop and employ human capital, policy initiatives in the area of alignment should focus on three simple observations: (1) Students are not taking enough of the right courses to succeed in college; (2) Student assessments are poorly timed and are not rigorous enough; and (3) Postsecondary options for high school students are underused.