Graduation Requirements

Shadows of Walla Walla (Wash.) High School seniors waiting to enter graduation are cast on a school wall.
Shadows of Walla Walla (Wash.) High School seniors waiting to enter graduation are cast on a school wall.
Greg Lehman/Walla Walla Union-Bulletin via AP
College & Workforce Readiness What the Research Says The High School Credit-Hour: A Timeline of the Carnegie Unit
The credit-hour, often known as the Carnegie unit, has been the essential measure of American secondary and higher education for more than a century. Here's how it started.
Sarah D. Sparks, December 15, 2022
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4 min read
Educators with strings tied to each of the clock hands and pulling them in different directions.
iStock/Getty Images Plus
College & Workforce Readiness The Head of the Carnegie Foundation Wants to Ditch the Carnegie Unit. Here's Why
The group that made credit-hours the high school standard for more than 100 years says it's time for a new metric of student success.
Sarah D. Sparks, December 8, 2022
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5 min read
Students are always greeted by Cheryl Rohmer as they check in for the after school program at Mountain Education Charter High School in Woodstock, Ga. The network, like other dropout recovery programs, has expanded during the pandemic due to rising need.
Marcia Oliveira, left, and her son Angelo, 18, talk with a graduation advocate in Charleston, S.C., about how to schedule credit-recovery classes around the new restaurant job Angelo had to pick up during the pandemic to help his family.
Henry Taylor for Education Week
College & Workforce Readiness From Our Research Center Plunging Graduation Rates Signal Long Recovery
In the second year of the pandemic, the number of states with falling graduation rates more than doubled.
Sarah D. Sparks, August 29, 2022
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10 min read
A conceptual illustration of a mountain of paperwork before the goal is reached.
Vanessa Solis/Education Week and iStock
School & District Management Opinion Graduation Must Depend on Learning, Not Time
We’re long overdue to redesign our education system around competency, argue six superintendents. Here’s what that could look like.
Morcease Beasley, Alberto Carvalho, William Hite, Jesus Jara, Monica Goldson & Jerry Almendarez, October 12, 2021
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5 min read
Image shows a multi-tailed arrow hitting the bullseye of a target.
DigitalVision Vectors/Getty
Equity & Diversity Opinion When Educational Equity Descends Into Educational Nihilism
Schools need to buckle down to engage and educate kids—not lower (or eliminate) expectations in the name of “equity.”
Rick Hess, September 8, 2021
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3 min read
Tight cropped photo of blue mortarboard and yellow tassel shot on blue graduation gown.
iStock/Getty
College & Workforce Readiness Data Data: How Is Coronavirus Changing States' Graduation Requirements?
Track what states are doing to ease the educational disruptions facing the high school class of 2020.
Sarah D. Sparks, April 8, 2020
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1 min read
Christine Pappis, a senior at Newark Memorial High School in Newark, Calif., snapped this screenshot during a 5-hour video call during last Saturday night. Pappis said she uses FaceTime to keep in touch with her friends, since they are not only in school closures, but community lockdown; some of her friends tried to hang out and “ended up with a $400 fine.” The students, in order from top to bottom: Natalie Salcedo, Pifolau Denson, Samantha Gutiérrez, Sabrina Liaw, Christian Bowker (bottom left) and Pappis, bottom right.
Christine Pappis, a senior at Newark Memorial High School in Newark, Calif., snapped this screenshot during a 5-hour video call during last Saturday night. Pappis said she uses FaceTime to keep in touch with her friends, since they are not only in school closures, but community lockdown; some of her friends tried to hang out and “ended up with a $400 fine.” The students, in order from top to bottom: Natalie Salcedo, Pifolau Denson, Samantha Gutiérrez, Sabrina Liaw, Christian Bowker (bottom left) and Pappis, bottom right.
Student Well-Being The Lost Senior Year: Credits, Proms, Sports All in Jeopardy
The coronavirus closures are shaping a disruptive end to a tumultuous academic career for the Class of 2020.
Sarah D. Sparks, March 30, 2020
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12 min read
Doig Middle School history teacher Ben Huntsinger talks with Valerie Rivera, 12, center, and Jailyn Portillo, 14, right, before the students present a proposal for a new homeless shelter during a city council meeting in Garden Grove, Calif., last week.
Doig Middle School history teacher Ben Huntsinger talks with Valerie Rivera, 12, center, and Jailyn Portillo, 14, right, before the students present a proposal for a new homeless shelter during a city council meeting in Garden Grove, Calif., last week.
Meg Oliphant for Education Week
States 'Action Civics' Enlists Students in Hands-On Democracy
An activist brand of civics instruction is gaining champions and a few critics in the nation's schools.
Catherine Gewertz, March 20, 2019
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8 min read
Fremont High School teacher, Maya Brodkey, left, talks with senior Cristy Gonzalez-Hernandez about her senior capstone project during class at the Oakland, Calif., school. The district has had a policy since 2005 requiring students to complete a “serious research project or exhibition” in order to graduate.
Fremont High School teacher, Maya Brodkey, left, talks with senior Cristy Gonzalez-Hernandez about her senior capstone project during class at the Oakland, Calif., school. The district has had a policy since 2005 requiring students to complete a “serious research project or exhibition” in order to graduate.
Ashley Crichton for Education Week
Teaching Can 'Capstone Projects' Deepen Learning for High School Seniors?
Educators in Oakland, Calif., say the yearlong graduation projects are helping students master oral, writing, and research skills that will serve them well for whatever comes next.
Stephen Sawchuk, February 5, 2019
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7 min read
College & Workforce Readiness New Jersey Court Strikes Down PARCC Test as Grad Requirement
The state is one of about a dozen that require students to pass a test in order to graduate from high school.
Catherine Gewertz, January 2, 2019
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1 min read
College & Workforce Readiness Opinion The Tangled Web: The High School Diploma, College and Career Readiness Standards and Career and Technical Education
Marc Tucker looks at how low bars for college and career readiness standards, career and technical education and high school graduation requirements are leaving U.S. students two and three years behind their peers in top-performing systems.
Marc Tucker, September 6, 2018
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10 min read
Science New Mexico To Count Computer Science as Graduation Requirement
The state's education secretary says the move will help ensure students' preparedness for the "21st century marketplace."
Sarah Schwartz, May 7, 2018
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2 min read
BRIC ARCHIVE
College & Workforce Readiness High School Diploma Criteria Fall Short, Study Finds
An analysis finds that, in most states, students must exceed high school diploma requirements in order to be admitted to a public, four-year college in their state.
Catherine Gewertz, April 10, 2018
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5 min read
College & Workforce Readiness How High School Diploma Requirements Fall Short of College Admission Standards
A new study documents a tricky trap for students: the gap between what high schools require for graduation and what state universities require for admission.
Catherine Gewertz, April 2, 2018
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5 min read
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