Summary
In 2014 the Washington state legislature approved career-and college-ready (CCR) requirements for high school graduation that better align with career pathways and with admissions standards at the state’s public universities than previous requirements did. The CCR requirements increased the total number of credits needed to graduate, from 20 to 24, by requiring an additional credit of laboratory science, an additional credit of fine arts, and two credits of world languages, though students can replace one fine arts credit and two world languages credits with credits in other content areas that align with their postsecondary plans. The requirements took effect for the class of 2019, though some districts implemented them earlier and others received a waiver to delay implementation until the class of 2021. State and local education leaders in Washington asked the Regional Educational Laboratory Northwest to study districts’ progress in implementing the requirements for the classes of 2018 and 2019. The study looked at differences in the percentages of 2018 graduates who met the requirements and of 2018 graduates who did not across student groups (by socioeconomic status, English learner status, race/ethnicity, and prior achievement). It also examined changes in student academic outcomes for districts that had increased total, science, fine arts, or world languages credit requirements each year between the class of 2013 and the class of 2018. The study found that the percentage of districts that had implemented all the CCR graduation requirements increased from 9 percent for the class of 2018 to 56 percent for the class of 2019. The districts that had implemented the CCR graduation requirements for the class of 2018 tended to have more teachers and more courses per student across content areas than districts that had not. About 27 percent of 2018 graduates statewide met all the requirements; gaps across student groups suggest that barriers exist for students who are eligible for the national school lunch program and students who attend schools in which more than 75 percent of students are eligible, current English learner students, students of color, and students with low scores on grade 8 state assessments. Finally, district-level increases in total, science, fine arts, or world languages credit requirements between the class of 2013 and the class of 2018 showed little impact on student academic outcomes.
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