New Proposed High School Graduation Requirements Will Prepare Students for Life in the 21st Century

With the declaration that “Michigan students cannot be left behind in the global dust,” State Superintendent of Public Instruction Michael Flanagan and the State Board of Education made historic recommendations to change state law to ensure that Michigan students receive a rigorous education to meet the global demands of the 21st Century.

The State Board of Education recommendations are based on a set of graduation credits Superintendent Flanagan accepted from the High School Graduation Task Force he commissioned in late September 2005. The State Board of Education charged the Task Force with researching the graduation requirements of five key states—Arkansas, Indiana, Massachusetts, Oregon, and Rhode Island—along with research practices from other nations.

On December 13, 2005, the State Board of Education subsequently adopted a plan requiring that all Michigan students complete 18 credits in the areas of English language arts, mathematics, science, social studies, visual and performing arts, health and physical education, and world languages in order to graduate. These credits called the Michigan Merit Core Curriculum will form the basis for subject and course content expectations currently under development (see Michigan Merit Core Curriculum).

The phenomenon of globalization in the 21st Century has changed the way states must think about educating their students. New scientific discoveries, sophisticated communication technologies, and the rising economic status of nations such as China, India, and Eastern Europe over the last 30 years have produced a whole new world. The baby boomer generation once only imagined this kind of world in science-fiction movies and books. Just think—most technological tools like robots, video phone systems, and programmable houses that adults of today viewed as children in the popular 1960s cartoon, The Jetsons, are now realities for their own children!

During this time of rapid change, our educational systems are racing to keep pace with the new skills and knowledge that all students will need to live in this more global 21st Century world.

However, as Vivien Stewart and Sharon Kagan remark in the November 2005 issue of Phi Delta Kappan, “…Ironically, our educational discourse is largely stuck in a time warp, framed by issues and standards set decades before the widespread use of the personal computer, the Internet, and free trade agreements.”

Bill Gates, a philanthropist whose foundation has spent millions on education reform, has this blunt assessment of the current state of high schools in America (www.gatesfoundation.org). In his February 2005 speech to the nation’s governors, he asserted that today’s high schools are obsolete. “Training the workforce of tomorrow with the high schools of today is like trying to teach kids about today’s computers on a 50-year-old mainframe. It’s the wrong tool for the times. Our high schools were designed fifty years ago to meet the needs of another age. Until we design them to meet the needs of the 21st Century, we will keep limiting—even ruining —the lives of millions of Americans every year.”

Michigan’s proposed graduation requirements are based on the belief that Michigan high schools of the future must be updated to fulfill the promise of a world-class education for all high school students. The Michigan Merit Core Curriculum (see page 3) and the 21st Century Applied Learning Core Skills (see page 5) aim to prepare each and every student for education beyond high school.

The graduation requirements are guided by the following principles:

• Graduation requirements must focus on the knowledge and skills students will need in the 21st Century to succeed in post-secondary education and the workplace.
• The preparation students need for success in education beyond high school is the same as the preparation required for success in the workplace.
• Graduation requirements must allow for each and every high school student, regardless of instructional need, to successfully meet them. Schools must provide all necessary accommodations, appropriate interventions, and alternative pathways.
• Rigorous learning standards must ensure that students see and understand the relevance of what they are learning.
• Recommendations to improve preparation and achievement in our existing system also must encourage and promote the development of innovative educational models and practices.
• The teacher in the classroom is the heart of instructional excellence. Teachers will need support to deliver more rigorous curriculum and instruction, make instruction relevant, and adapt instruction so that each and every student is successful.
• All Michigan high school students deserve to learn a core of knowledge and skills that reflect high expectations and create equitable opportunities.

Michigan is presented with an interesting and exciting challenge. Transforming our high schools will most certainly impact pre-kindergarten and elementary initiatives, as well as our higher education system. However, with a systematic approach and the innovative and entrepreneurial spirit that has long characterized the Michigan citizenry, we are poised for a historical breakthrough. A world-class education for the 21st Century begins with the establishment of a caring culture of education based on rigorous and relevant high school graduation requirements. This is our challenge, but it is also our opportunity. Our students deserve nothing less than the best.

For an update on high school graduation requirement legislation, visit www.michigan.gov/highschool. For more
information, contact: Diane McMillan, High School Redesign Consultant, Office of the State Superintendent, (517) 335-4739, McMillanDj@michigan.gov.

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