House Education Committee reviews proposed graduation rule changes including digital literacy credit and new future readiness project

The House Education Committee on Monday continued review of a package of pending administrative rule changes to statewide graduation requirements and related materials, with State Department of Education chief of staff Greg Wilson outlining the proposed changes and implementation timeline. The committee did not take final action on the rules during the meeting.

Wilson, the department’s chief of staff, told the committee the state’s minimum diploma requirement remains 46 credits — 29 core academic credits and 17 electives — and that most districts and charter schools currently require more than the state minimum. “There are districts and charter schools varying or adding on to the state minimum anywhere from 3 to 6 to sometimes 8 additional localized graduation requirements,” Wilson said.

The department proposed four principal updates to the graduation rules: add credit flexibility for core academic requirements to allow work-based and other outside learning to satisfy core credits; establish digital literacy as a one-credit core academic requirement; require districts and charter schools to develop and publicly post at least two localized pathways; and replace the existing senior project with a revised “future readiness project.”

On digital literacy, Wilson said the proposed one-credit requirement would cover foundational computer science concepts (algorithms, coding, artificial…