McElspeth, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

THIS MONTH, more than 280,000 students in Massachusetts entered high school classrooms to begin another school year. As schools greet them for their first days of the new school year, the Commonwealth has a rare opportunity to redefine what it means to graduate from high school.

Over the past year, Massachusetts has been navigating a question that will reshape high school in important ways: What should a diploma signify for the young person who earns it? 

The Statewide Graduation Council’s final recommendations, released in June, reflect a clear answer: A Massachusetts diploma should mean that a student is academically prepared for life after high school and has a clear, informed plan for what comes next. The council rightly calls for strong academic foundations: completion of MassCore, the state program of study aligned to higher education admissions, culminating experiences, and end-of-course assessments.

These requirements ensure students not only complete coursework, but also achieve the proficiency necessary to thrive in postsecondary pathways.  But academic preparation alone is not enough.

As education policy and practice leaders, we have spent decades partnering with schools, districts, higher education institutions, employers, and community organizations in Greater Boston and beyond. We have seen firsthand the opportunities available to students who successfully navigate the transition from high school to college, training programs, and careers. We have also seen how easily students can miss those opportunities when they lack access to information, guidance, and support.

Recent research highlights stalled college completion among Boston students, along with persistent gaps by race, income, and disability. That reality carries particular urgency in Massachusetts. Ours is a state where postsecondary credentials increasingly determine access to economic opportunity. In just five short years, three quarters of jobs here will require a postsecondary credential. Whether a student pursues a four-year degree, community college, industry credential, apprenticeship, military service, or workforce training, the decisions they make during middle and high school can have lasting consequences. 

Yet access to the advising and planning needed to make those decisions remains highly uneven. Some students benefit from robust counseling, career exploration, college advising, work-based learning opportunities, and family networks that help them navigate complex systems. Others must piece together that information on their own. The result is not merely unequal experiences in high school; it is unequal access to future opportunity.

That is why one of the most consequential recommendations in the graduation council’s report is its emphasis on postsecondary planning and the implementation of My Career and Academic Plan, or MyCAP. At its best, MyCAP helps students connect their interests, strengths, and aspirations to concrete educational and career pathways. Research shows that structured postsecondary planning is associated with stronger student engagement, higher FAFSA completion rates, greater participation in programs such as Early College and Innovation Pathways, and improved postsecondary and workforce outcomes.

Just as important, intentional postsecondary planning helps students see relevance in their education. Young people are more likely to engage when they understand how today’s decisions connect to tomorrow’s opportunities. The council’s recommendations recognize that every student deserves this support, not just those fortunate enough to attend a school with extensive advising resources or to have adults in their lives who know how to navigate these systems. 

Making this vision a reality will require more than adopting new requirements. Massachusetts must invest in the conditions that make high-quality postsecondary planning possible. That means strengthening counseling and advising capacity, supporting districts and educators with professional learning and implementation resources, and ensuring schools have the necessary time, tools, and data systems to coordinate support for students. It also means prioritizing students who face the greatest barriers to opportunity, including multilingual learners, students with disabilities, students from low-income backgrounds, and students in historically under-resourced communities.

Implementation must also extend beyond K-12 education. Colleges, universities, workforce systems, employers, and community-based organizations all play a role in helping students successfully navigate the transition to adulthood. The strongest outcomes occur when these systems are aligned around shared expectations and common goals, and we have clear data to understand what is and isn’t working.

The debate over graduation requirements has often centered on what students must do to earn a diploma. The more important question is what that diploma should promise. It should promise rigorous preparation. It should promise access to opportunity. And it should promise that every graduate leaves high school with both the skills and the plan needed to pursue a meaningful future.

With the start of the new school year—nearly two years after voters ended the MCAS graduation requirement — Massachusetts has a real opportunity to build that system. We should seize it.

Marinell Rousmaniere is CEO of EdVestors. Antoniya Marinova is associate vice president of programs at The Boston Foundation. The authors are members of the Postsecondary Pathways Policy Roundtable (3PR), a coalition of statewide advocacy organizations and Boston-based networks committed to equitable postsecondary access and success.