Changing the Finish Line - Implications of New Graduation Requirements in the School District of Philadelphia

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Sarah

Changing the Finish Line examines how Pennsylvania’s new statewide high school graduation requirements could affect students in the School District of Philadelphia. For the class of 2023, students must show career or postsecondary preparedness under Act 158’s five pathways, including Keystone proficiency and composite options plus alternative measures such as industry certifications, assessments, service-learning, and internships. The report analyzes pre-pandemic Keystone exam performance for 2018–2019 cohorts to estimate who met or nearly met Keystone-associated graduation expectations.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages29

Reading Time1 h 13 min

AccessFree to download

Executive Summary

Pennsylvania’s Graduation Pathways in Brief

Keystone Proficiency Pathway

Keystone Composite Pathway

Career and Technical Education (CTE) Concentrator Pathway

Alternative Assessment Pathway

Evidence-Based Pathway

Changing the Finish Line: Implications of new graduation requirements in the School District of Philadelphia Sean Vannata, Anna Shaw-Amoah, Molly Pileggi and Alyn Turner Research for Action Molly Schlesinger, Theodore Wills and Roland Reyes School District of Philadelphia OCTOBER 2022 Acknowledgments The authors gratefully acknowledge the intellectual contributions of Joy Lesnick, Tonya Wolford, and Alexandrea Robinson-Rogers from the School District of Philadelphia. From Research for Action, Saxon Nelson and RayaneAlamuddin provided invaluable feedback on report drafts, and Samantha Slade prepared the report design and graphics. The authors would also like to thank participants of PERC's May 2022 workshop, which included a number of organizations that support high school students in the Philadelphia area. Their candid perspectives and the focused discussion helped inform the direction of this report and contextualize findings and implications. This work was made possible through the support of the William Penn Foundation. The Foundation did not exercise editorial control over this report, and the contents ofthe report do not necessarily reflect their views. About PERC The Philadelphia Education Research Consortium is a partnership between the School District of Philadelphia’s Office of Research and Evaluation and Research for Action, a nonprofit education research organization. Launched in August 2014, PERC conducts research that is community-informed, equityfocused, and based on a critical analysis of District needs. We engage in longer-term, sustained areas of investigation that can be leveraged at the right time by the right people for real change in Philadelphia. PERC is funded by the William Penn Foundation and is a member of the National Network of Education Research Practice Partnerships. Suggestion Citation APA Style: Vannata, S., Shaw-Amoah, A., Pileggi, M., Schlesinger, M., Wills, T., Reyes, R., & Turner, A. (2022). Changing the Finish Line: Implications of new graduation requirements in the School District of Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Education Research Consortium. Chicago Style: Vannata, Sean, Anna Shaw-Amoah, Molly Pileggi, Molly Schlesinger, Theodore Wills, Roland Reyes, and Alyn Turner. Changing the Finish Line: Implications of new graduation requirements in the School District of Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Education Research Consortium, 2022. Changing the Finish Line: Implications of new graduation requirements in the School District of Philadelphia Sean Vannata, Anna Shaw-Amoah, Molly Pileggi, Molly Schlesinger, Theodore Wills, Roland Reyes, and Alyn Turner • October 2022 Executive Summary Beginning with the class of 2023, Pennsylvania high school students will need to demonstrate career or postsecondary preparedness to meet statewide graduation requirements and receive a high school diploma. The new graduation requirements were enacted in 2018 by Pennsylvania's Act 158 . They are intended to codify high standards for all students and improve student achievement across Pennsylvania, while also taking into account student strengths, interests, and career goals. As profiled in PERC’s recent related brief, Act 158 outlines five pathways to demonstrating career or postsecondary preparedness, two of which—the Keystone pathways—require demonstrating proficiency on Pennsylvania's end-ofcourse subject exams for Literature, Algebra, and Biology. The remaining three pathways to graduation—the alternative pathways—require that a student (1) either earn a Proficient Keystone exam score or acceptable course grades in each Keystone subject area and (2) demonstrate college or career readiness through one or multiple alternative metrics, such as through an industry-based competency certification, successful completion of a service-learning project, or an internship or cooperative education program, among other metrics. In December 2020, in anticipation of this policy s

FAQs

What requirement begins with the class of 2023 for Pennsylvania high school students?

Students must demonstrate career or postsecondary preparedness to meet statewide graduation requirements and receive a high school diploma.

What are the five pathways under Act 158?

Act 158 establishes five pathways: two Keystone pathways based on end-of-course exams, and three alternative pathways using measures such as proficiency or acceptable grades plus additional college or career readiness metrics.

How does this report estimate potential impacts in Philadelphia?

It uses pre-pandemic administrative data for students in the 2018 and 2019 classes who took Keystone exams in District middle or high schools, estimating how many and which students would have met or nearly met Keystone-associated graduation expectations defined by Act 158.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Sarah