The Washington State Board of Education is taking a hard look at what it takes to graduate high school, and they’re hearing a lot from students, teachers and employers about what’s working — and what’s not.
This effort, called the FutureReady initiative, will propose a reformed list of graduation requirements to better prepare students for the world after high school. The hope is that this proposal will be delivered to lawmakers for consideration in 2027.
For years, the board has received a steady stream of concerns about the current standards. Some say they are too flexible or not relevant enough to college or careers. Educators have also complained that they present a logistical challenge, mainly because they require students to earn 24 credits.
“It’s a holistic review,” said J. Lee Schultz, deputy executive director of the Board. “We often hear from students about how schoolwork is not meaningful or relevant to what they might do.”
The board launched a task force in January with students, teachers, employers and community members working together to determine the best path forward. Their work is happening in phases — right now, they’re gathering data and research. By December, they’ll release an interim report with their findings, and by 2027, they hope to have a complete proposal ready for the state Legislature. Students from the class of 2031, who are currently sixth graders, would be the earliest group affected by any change.
The board estimates FutureReady will cost around $440,000, with more than half of the funding coming from the state Legislature and another $160,000 from The Gates Foundation. (The Gates Foundation is a fiscal sponsor of Education Lab.)
The task force will discuss the state’s need for more workers with postsecondary credentials. According to a report from the Washington Business Roundtable, a nonprofit advocacy organization composed of executives from Washington companies, around 70% of jobs in Washington state will soon require some education beyond high school.
“We certainly think that there should be a minimum set of expectations that all students meet — and there shouldn’t be variations in that,” said Brian Jeffries, policy director for the Roundtable organization and a member of the FutureReady task force. “If college is part of that equation (after high school), their diploma should represent a promise that they’re prepared for that next step.”
Currently, students in Washington need 24 credits to graduate, but it can be a tough fit in some districts.
“There’s this perception that kids have to pass every class or they can’t graduate,” said Alissa Muller, policy director for the board. Some districts have more flexibility, with seven-period schedules or trimester systems, but not all students have that option.
Then there’s the High School and Beyond Plan, which is supposed to help students map out their future. A graduation requirement since 2009, the plan is a multiyear questionnaire designed to help students consider their study and career goals.
In February, the state launched an online platform to improve the High School and Beyond Plan, which will standardize the experience across schools. Since the plan’s inception, it has been largely up to each district to fulfill this requirement and allocate resources accordingly, leading to different outcomes across districts.
“There is fantastic intent here,” Muller said, “but in reality, a lot of students just check a few boxes” because counselors are stretched thin in many districts.
The task force also plans to examine the state’s graduation pathways, which provide students with different routes to meet graduation requirements, such as completing a series of career and technical education courses or taking the military aptitude exam. These alternatives, implemented in 2020, were formed after a successful effort to remove a requirement that students pass standardized exams to graduate. Supporters said it would help schools focus fewer resources on getting students to pass the exams and cater to students who weren’t charting toward four years of university after high school.
But the timing, right in the heart of the pandemic, has made implementation difficult. Some districts don’t offer some pathways, including CTE classes, that might interest students. In many cases, students don’t even know they exist until they fail one of the state’s standardized exams, which they are still required to take under federal law.
“It’s a fail-first mentality,” said Muller. “It’s not working the way it was intended.”
Other states are considering making graduation requirements more meaningful. According to the board’s research, more than 25 states have some version of a High School and Beyond Plan, and many are adding performance-based options that let students demonstrate what they’ve learned through real-world projects.
It’s not clear how the current standards would change. The board wants community engagement and the task force’s work to guide the discussion. But the staff said they’ve consistently heard the need for more financial literacy and learning that fosters critical thinking skills.
The board has already fielded questions about the length of the process. Schultz stressed that the time will allow broad input into what may amount to a substantive change in what school is like — not just for high schoolers but for the entire K-12 system.
“We’re not entering into this with our own proposed solution,” she said.
Interested members of the public have several opportunities to comment on the standards. The board has opened an interest form and is hosting two virtual listening sessions about graduation requirements on March 11. There is also a newsletter summarizing the work of the task force.
