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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 14, 2026
Media Contact: Casey Baines [email protected]
Massachusetts Business Leaders Call for Stronger Graduation Standards for Our Students & the Commonwealth’s Future
Boston, MA – The Board Chairs of the most influential business associations in Massachusetts issued a joint letter urging Governor Healey, Speaker Mariano, and Senate President Spilka to adopt rigorous standards that ensure all high school students graduate prepared for success. Citing declining student performance, persistent achievement gaps, and weakened graduation requirements, the Board Chairs noted that recent trends threaten the Commonwealth’s leadership in public education.
The business leaders expressed support for the recommendations outlined in the Interim Report of the Statewide Graduation Council, emphasizing the need to make passing end-of-course assessments a graduation requirement. These assessments, combined with strengthened curriculum requirements, would guarantee that students master critical skills and knowledge needed to thrive after graduation in their careers and life.
As CEOs and senior executives of Massachusetts employers, the Board Chairs emphasized that students will drive tomorrow’s innovation, growth, and opportunity. Employers and admissions counselors must have confidence in what a Massachusetts diploma represents. End-of-course assessments provide an objective, statewide measure of achievement, ensuring equity and credibility.
For centuries, Massachusetts set the standard for public education worldwide. From the landmark 1990s initiatives to recent investments through the Student Opportunity Act, the business community has long championed education reform. Leaders now urge swift implementation of the Graduation Council’s recommendations, warning that every year of delay puts students and the Commonwealth’s economic future at risk.
The full letter is as follows:
Governor Healey, Speaker Mariano, and Senate President Spilka,
For centuries, Massachusetts defined public education while the rest of the world followed. However, a decline in student performance, stubborn achievement gaps, and a scaled back graduation requirement put our leading position at risk. Failures by adults are driving these changes, but it is the students who will endure the most severe impacts.
As CEOs and senior executives of major Massachusetts employers and board chairs for some of the largest business associations, we have a stake in the Commonwealth’s students. Today’s students will drive tomorrow’s innovation, growth, and opportunity and the skills they learn in classrooms will provide the foundation for future achievement. As such, we support setting a high bar for achievement for all students in the Commonwealth.
We support much of the initial recommendations in the Interim Report of the Statewide Graduation Council. Building on that, we urge the Commonwealth to make passing end-of-course assessments a graduation requirement for Massachusetts students. Combined with the proposed curriculum requirements, end-of-course assessments will ensure students have the foundational skills that prepare them to think critically, creatively, and innovatively.
While the curriculum requirements are key and will bring Massachusetts in line with 40-plus other states, the end-of-course assessments add meaning to the coursework. Students and employers will both benefit if passing the assessments is required for graduation.
An end-of-course assessment creates an equal opportunity for all students to demonstrate mastery of critical subject matters and skills, regardless of geography or socioeconomic status. Importantly, assessments designed and administered by the state will result in an objective measure that will not vary across towns, districts, or classrooms.
The objective nature of the assessments also enhances credibility. Potential employers or admissions counselors will know exactly what a student had to achieve in order to earn a Massachusetts diploma, rather than having to parse out how a student may have been evaluated.
Importantly, assessments provide critical real-world training. Virtually every career is full of situations that demand calm, timely, and focused solutions: clients, patients, students, taxpayers, and others all have expectations, needs, and crises. We should embrace assessments because they help to prepare students for what life inevitably holds.
The business community was integral to the 1990s reform that kickstarted enormous gains in student achievement and supported increased investments via the Student Opportunity Act. Now, we strongly urge the Commonwealth to adopt and implement the recommendations laid out in the Interim Report of the Statewide Graduation Council, including using end of course assessments as a graduation requirement. Furthermore, it must be done quickly.
Every year that passes without these requirements in place is one where our students will lose out. We must not fail our students because this time, the world will not follow.
Signatories:
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