At their 2022 November meeting, the Kansas Board of Education officially approved the new graduation requirements for Kansas high school students. After over a year of discussing these changes, the Board came to a consensus, and there will be many graduation requirement changes going into effect for as early as the class of 2028.
As of now, Kansas high school students must have a minimum of 21 credits to graduate. This will not be changed, but how these 21 credits add up will be. Before the change, students were required to complete four English credits. Under the new requirements, students will have to take 3.5 credits of English, and .5 credits of communications; communications credits could include public speaking, debate, journalism, forensics, etc.
Under the old graduation requirements, students were required to take three credits of science and three credits of math, but this is changing to seven credits of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). This will still consist of three units of science and three units of math, but now students will have to take one STEM elective class. These STEM electives could include classes like computer science, advanced math, science, robotics, advanced career, etc.
Currently, students need one credit of physical education and any six elective credits of their choice. Under new requirements, students will be required to take .5 units of physical education, .5 units of health, .5 units of financial literacy, and 4.5 units of electives that must be related to the student’s individual plan of study (IPS).
One of the biggest changes to new graduation requirements is the addition of the postsecondary assets. Students will be required to complete at least two of these assets which are located on an established list. These assets include career, real-world, and academic assets that are related to students’ career paths. The career and real-world assets include things such as apprenticeships, community service, industry certifications, and other workplace knowledge related to a student’s IPS. The academic assets include having an ACT composite score of 21 or higher, an SAT score of 1480 or higher, an ACT workkeys score of silver or higher, taking nine or more college credit hours, and obtaining a level three or four on the Kansas State Assessments in math, English, and science.
These changes were officially approved by the Kansas Board of Education on Thursday, November 10, 2022. This was the first time in nearly 20 years that changes to the graduation requirements were approved by the Board of Education. Although these changes were approved a little over a year ago, they will likely go into effect for the eighth grade class entering high school in the fall of 2024 after they receive final approval.
Work Cited
Bush, Ann. “State Board of Education approves new graduation requirements.” Kansas State Department of Education, 17 November 2022, https://www.ksde.org/Home/Quick-Links/News-Room/Weekly-News/Feature-Story/ArtMID/6201/ArticleID/755/State-Board-of-Education-approves-new-graduation-requirements. Accessed 7 December 2023.
