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If Governor Healey’s Statewide High School Graduation Framework, released on December 1, is a first draft, it needs serious revisions for the final version to meet the needs of our students and schools. The framework includes state-created and scored end-of-course tests, or standardized tests in new clothing. This recommendation ignores the will of the voters who in November 2024 decided overwhelmingly to eliminate MCAS and any other standardized test as graduation requirements. Changes must be made for the state to do more than pay lip service to demands for a whole child, 21st century education, as well as flexibility, educator autonomy and student agency.
Citizens for Public Schools, in cooperation with other education organizations, organized a series of public forums across the state to find out what parents, teachers, students, and other people concerned with our public schools really want for graduation readiness requirements. Hundreds of people came together to discuss three fundamental questions:
1. What should students know and be able to do by the time they graduate from high school?
2. How should students demonstrate their readiness to graduate?
3. What should high school look like to prepare students for your recommended graduation requirements?
Participants in both the CPS forums and the Governor’s Graduation Council listening sessions expressed common themes and goals: In addition to higher order skills like critical thinking, participants also said they wanted students to be literate in math, English language arts, science, and history. Many participants emphasized the importance of preparing students to engage in civic life and develop self-reliance through financial literacy and life skills like finding a job and a place to live.
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