Healey administration rolls out new, preliminary graduation standards for Mass. high schoolers

ATTLEBORO, Mass. — Inside Attleboro High School’s new auditorium, Gov. Maura Healey’s administration rolled out a new outline for a statewide graduation standard after the MCAS exam was voted out as a requirement for a diploma.

Attleboro High School students were some of the first to hear the new Vision of a Massachusetts Graduation preliminary outline. The roadmap is a statewide standard for all high school graduates to meet.

Lt. Governor Kim Driscoll was one of the many speakers on Wednesday morning during their presentation.

“This is a step forward,” she said to a crowd of students. “We got a framework. We got some goalposts ... we want to hold ourselves accountable to.”

The plan, she said, remains in the early stages. It’s still unclear how students will be measured in proficiency for this plan.

She added, “We want students to feel prepared when they graduate, to take on the workforce or to feel empowered and confident in their futures -- whatever they may be.”

She was on stage alongside Massachusetts Secretary of Education Patrick Tutwiler.

In their new plan, graduating students would meet three pillars — each with two skills.

Their plan reads:

“Massachusetts graduates will be:

Thinkers

• Academically Prepared: Graduates have a strong foundation across academic disciplines, equipping them with both the knowledge to thrive in college, career, and civic life and the skills to be lifelong learners.  
• Critical Problem-Solvers: Graduates critically examine information to draw connections, question assumptions, infer meaning, and shape solutions.  

Contributors

• Self-Aware Navigators: Graduates understand themselves, their strengths, and their opportunities and can effectively leverage their unique skills to navigate a variety of paths and environments.  
• Intentional Collaborators: Graduates engage respectfully and productively with diverse individuals and groups, recognizing the value of their unique perspectives, identities and experiences as well as those of others.  

Leaders

• Effective Communicators: Graduates confidently and clearly express their ideas to diverse audiences across a variety of mediums.  
• Responsible Decision-Makers: Graduates can set and pursue personal goals, make healthy and financially sustainable choices, and demonstrate confidence and competence in shaping their lives."

Tutwiler explained, “We believe that these 6 key skills and competencies will put our high school students on a path, not just to thrive, but to realize their dreams.”

In a 2024 ballot question, Massachusetts voted to remove the MCAS exam as a graduation requirement for high school students.

Tutwiler said their K-12 Graduation Council, formed by a Gov. Healey executive order in January, will unveil initial findings for a statewide graduation standard later this Fall. A final report and roadmap, he said, will follow.

He finished, “Our recommendations will include rigorous learning experiences and a mechanism to give us confidence these students are meeting high expectations.”

State leaders said Wednesday this preliminary plan was formed after months of community feedback across the Bay State.

The Massachusetts Teachers Association president Max Page and their vice president said in joint a statement Wednesday:

“We are pleased that the draft Vision of a Massachusetts Graduate emphasizes core skills and attributes that are essential to the success of our young people as citizens, workers and lifelong learners. Educators and voters have made clear that such essential skills cannot be assessed by a standardized test. We will only nurture students to be “critical problem solvers, intentional collaborators, effective communicators, self-aware navigators, and responsible decision-makers” if we design educator-led systems of assessment and provide the necessary resources that educators, students and schools need to fulfill these goals.”

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