20-05-2025
Massachusetts updates state graduation requirements for Class of 2026
The Massachusetts Department of Early and Secondary Education has approved new high school graduation requirements to replace the MCAS requirement repealed by voters last year.
What are the new requirements?
The new requirements will start with the Class of 2026. To graduate high school, students will need to complete two years of high school English language arts classes, one year of algebra and one year of geometry or two years of integrated math, and one year of biology, physics, chemistry, technology or an engineering course. Beginning with the Class of 2027, graduating students will also need one year of U.S. history.
However, the requirements are temporary. Governor Maura Healey formed a K-12 Graduation Council to look into long-term requirements.
The department said the new requirements align with the MCAS tests students take in the 10th grade.
Massachusetts students must meet a state standard – a Competency Determination – and local school district requirements to graduate from high school.
Will schools still give MCAS tests?
Until 2024, Massachusetts students were required to pass the 10th-grade MCAS exams in math, English and science. In November, voters approved a ballot measure to prohibit the exams as a graduation requirement. Although students are still required to take the MCAS tests, the results cannot be used as a graduation requirement. Now, students are required to earn their Competency Determination "in the areas measured by the MCAS high school tests… administered in 2023."
"These are all important first steps in response to the outcome of November's ballot question, which impacted the Competency Determination, not everything a student should know for graduation," Education Secretary Patrick A. Tutwiler said.
The said MCAS scores may be used as a graduation requirement in "limited circumstances," such as in the case of students who don't have transcripts available. The council also included protections for the rights of students with disabilities and English language learners.
However, the Massachusetts Teachers Association claims any use of the MCAS scores for graduation is a "ridiculous back-door attempt by opponents of Question 2 to salvage a status quo that harmed students across the state and stifled authentic learning for decades." Instead, the MTA said, teachers have the expertise to make competency determinations.
The K-12 Graduation Council is in the process of holding listening sessions in person and virtually.
