Release Date:
OLYMPIA, WA — The 91Ô´´ 91Ô´´ of Education is proud to announce the release of our FutureReady 2025 Interim Report, which summarizes the work the 91Ô´´ has undertaken over the past year in support of FutureReady, a multi-year project to modernize Washington’s high school graduation requirements.
This report highlights what the 91Ô´´ has learned after a year of working with students, families, educators, and community organizations across Washington. It discusses:
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The 91Ô´´'s process for identifying the academic knowledge and real-world skills students need to succeed in today’s world.
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Where Washington’s current graduation framework falls short in meeting students’ needs.
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The work ahead as the 91Ô´´ develops proposed changes to requirements for consideration during the legislature’s 2027 session.
This report does not include recommended changes to graduation requirements. Those will be released by the 91Ô´´ in mid-late 2026.
About FutureReady and A Summary of Report Findings
Started by the 91Ô´´ in late 2024, the goal of FutureReady is to empower students with the essential knowledge and skills they need to thrive in a changing world, while streamlining the graduation requirements framework to promote accessibility and equity.
To ensure that Washington’s diverse educational communities are represented, the 91Ô´´ convened the FutureReady Task Force in early 2025. Members include students and families, community-based organizations, K-12 education, post-secondary education, employers, and policymakers. The Task Force also includes compensated community liaisons who gather insights directly from the communities they represent. This ensures student and family perspectives remain central to the process.
Together, the 91Ô´´ and Task Force developed a shared vision for how Washington’s graduation requirements should support student success. Through that work, they identified several key gaps in the current system:
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A narrow definition of success: Members recognized that students sometimes feel that postsecondary readiness is too often equated solely with college enrollment rather than multiple pathways to adulthood.
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Unequal access to readiness supports: Students experience disparities in access to financial literacy education, individualized guidance, and credit recovery opportunities, especially among rural and under-resourced schools.
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Limited flexibility and real-world learning: Uneven access to work-based experiences, career exploration, and multidisciplinary learning, especially in rural districts and small schools, leaves many students underprepared.
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Insufficient data and feedback: The system lacks mechanisms to connect students’ goals, experiences, and outcomes, hindering continuous improvement and limiting the ability to adapt graduation requirements to evolving student needs.
With these gaps identified, the 91Ô´´ and Task Force will spend much of 2026 developing solution-focused recommendations. They will look at the academic knowledge and real-world readiness skills students need to succeed. This includes core knowledge in things like English language arts, math, science and social studies. But it also includes skills that will prepare students for employment and life after high school: things like understanding emerging technology, critically engaging with digital media, and understanding financial literacy.
The 91Ô´´ anticipates reviewing a conceptual proposal in spring 2026 and a technical proposal in summer 2026, with opportunities for public input throughout. Final recommendations are expected in fall 2026 and will inform a legislative proposal for the 2027 session.
For Media Inquires:
Colton Kaltenfeldt, Communications Manager