The Washington State Board of Education has a final proposal for how the state should rewrite graduation requirements for high school students, after more than a year of deliberations.
Under the proposed changes, students would no longer need to demonstrate their readiness to graduate by completing one of nine “graduation pathways,” which can include passing an exam or completing a sequence of career and technical education courses.
The State Board also wants to change the course requirements, including making Algebra II the default subject for a third year of math. Civics, now a half-credit requirement, would become a full year’s subject by combining it with world history. And every school will have to offer a one-credit class that addresses financial education.
The proposal, dubbed the FutureReady initiative, has been in the works since last year, when the state Board of Education assembled a task force composed of leaders from across the government, community organizations and businesses. The group was charged with rethinking whether Washington’s requirements still reflect the knowledge and skills students need as increasing numbers of jobs require education or training beyond high school.
The ideas born of the FutureReady discussions still have a ways to go before they are law. Board members this month approved a legislative proposal that lawmakers will review during the 2027 session. Some of the changes would also need to be adopted through a separate process called rulemaking, where government agencies detail how certain laws will be implemented once they are passed.
Other state officials are submitting their own ideas to lawmakers next year for how to improve students’ postsecondary transitions. State schools Superintendent Chris Reykdal is proposing an alternative way to beef up civics and financial education, while Gov. Bob Ferguson is asking the Legislature to make filling out college financial aid applications mandatory.
If the graduation requirements bill does become law, the earliest those changes would take place is for the class of 2032, applying to students who start high school in fall of 2028.
School districts could still choose to enact their own, additional requirements beyond those proposed, said Randy Spaulding, executive director of the State Board. But the main goal was to adapt the current standards to what colleges and employers are looking for, as well as build more flexibility into students’ schedules.
“The current framework is restrictive and challenging to what students want to do, and sometimes do not align to postsecondary goals,” Spaulding said during a news conference this week.
Some of the changes rearrange credits in order to make room for courses that are aligned with what students want to do after high school, also called “Personalized Pathway” courses.
Those pathway courses would come with default classes such as a fourth year of math and financial education. But unlike core requirements, they could be swapped for other courses based on a student's postsecondary plans. Students would still need to earn 24 credits to graduate.
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