Washington is undertaking a multi-year effort to revise its high school graduation requirements, with the goal of better preparing students for adulthood.

The state board of education calls the plan FutureReady.

This month, the board released a new report detailing the plan’s progress so far.

“By modernizing graduation requirements, the Board seeks not only to meet the evolving needs of students today, but also to build a more responsive and future-focused education system for the years ahead,” the board said in the report.

As Washington education officials consider new graduation requirements, they recognize the disconnect between students and their future paths.

State leaders are hoping the new requirements will better serve students, educational institutions and the future employers of Washington students.

“We want students to see what they are learning and gaining from education,” said Abby Wu, one of the state board’s student members and a senior at Pullman High School.

Wu and other education officials shared FutureReady’s progress at a webinar hosted by the League of Education Voters, a statewide organization advocating for education policy in Washington, earlier this month.

“We want to ensure that the reformed graduation requirements both provide enough education for students after high school, while also ensuring to support them in both life skills and also their social emotional growth and well-being,” Wu said.

Current graduation requirements

Washington students need to fulfill several requirements to graduate under current standards: 24 earned credits, including four credits in English and three credits each in science, math, and social studies.

Students are also required to create a “High School and Beyond Plan” through an online platform and complete one of 8 “pathway options.”

Students can satisfy the pathway requirement through many routes, including meeting a minimum score on state assessments, completing career technical education courses or earning at least two high school credits in dual credit classes.

However, Washington officials say these requirements don’t always translate into college and career.

“Students are often unsure of how some of the current requirements are meant to help them,” Wu said. “There’s often a disparity between a student’s future goals and the type of coursework required to reach that goal.”

Some data bear that out, with one-third of sophomores and seniors in Washington high schools saying “their schoolwork is not meaningful,” according to the state’s 2023 healthy youth survey.

Additionally, the state reports that only 51% of Washington seniors enrolled in postsecondary education within a year of graduating in 2020.

State officials also cite research from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, which reports that 75% of Washington job openings through 2032 “will require postsecondary credentials.”

A FutureReady task force, comprised of educators, students and policymakers, completed a visioning process this year, which outlined goals for high school graduates and gaps in the current system that keep students from reaching those goals.

Both the goals and gaps are relatively broad, but both point to challenges the state board of education will have to address in its policy proposal for new graduation requirements.

State officials want to see students develop a wide range of skills they can apply to “real-world” contexts, with schools offering opportunities for students to explore many interests.

Some of the gaps officials found include disparities between “resourced and under-resourced schools” and “unengaging course offerings.”

According to FutureReady, one of the state’s gaps is: “The system lacks data connecting what students say they want to do after graduation, what they end up doing, and whether their chosen paths were supported by the preparation they received.”

“We all want to see our young people ready for the future and ready to contribute back to the community,” said Jen Chong Jewell, a member of the state board of education.

In Oregon, a 2022 report found that graduation requirements should be closely tied to what colleges and employers are looking for. A few things have happened since then.

Beginning with the Class of 2027, who are currently juniors, the state will require students to earn half credits in financial education and higher education/career path skills.

Students need to earn a total of 24 credits to graduate in Oregon, as well as compile a set of documents outlining future career planning. Most districts have not appeared to implement these courses by the 2024-2025 school year.

Education officials say ODE’s work on graduation requirements is “not complete,” and that conversations will be ongoing as the state creates a new accountability system for school districts.

In an email to OPB, state education department spokesperson Liz Merah called the 2022 report “an important milestone,” but said it wasn’t meant to be a “final step.”

“Graduation requirements remain an active policy area, and ODE expects to continue engaging with partners, the State Board of Education and the Governor’s Office over the coming months.”

In Oregon, one thing still in question is the future of the state’s “essential skills” requirement for graduation, which has been paused for several years.

In the past, most students met that requirement by passing state assessments, but legislators suspended that requirement through the 2027-2028 school year, a decision critics said made it “easier” to graduate.

Oregon Department of Education officials say they do not “anticipate” a longer suspension of the essential skills requirement.

Washington also removed its testing requirement as a way to “de-link standardized testing from graduation and replace it with a system of multiple options.”

Next on the docket for Washington policymakers in their FutureReady effort is a set of draft recommendations in 2026.

The plan is to spend the year collecting feedback and finalizing its recommendations before sending a proposal to the Washington state legislature for the 2027 session.

If the legislature moves forward with the state board’s proposal, any changes to graduation requirements will take time to implement.

According to FutureReady, the new graduation requirements wouldn’t take effect until the Class of 2031.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2025/12/27/washington-prepares-to-modernize-high-school-graduation-requirements/