New Report Charts a Path for States to Transform the High School Experience

Alexandria, VA—As many as three in four high school students say they feel unprepared for life after graduation, and about a third of teachers think their students are not ready for what comes next. Parents are asking for a solution: high school experiences that set their kids up for a meaningful future.

A new report from the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE) argues that state boards of education are uniquely positioned to close the gap between high school experiences and today’s student needs—and many are already doing so. In 2024, NASBE and KnowledgeWorks convened the High School Transformation State Network, where cross-agency teams from California, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, and Washington unpacked how states can support high school transformation.

The report, States’ Role in Transforming High School: Evidence, Trends, and the Path Forward, synthesizes cross-cutting trends from direct engagement with network states and illuminates the policy conditions state boards and their partners can create to enable lasting change.

Network states show what these trends and policies look like in practice:

• Indiana spent years redefining what readiness looks like through revised diplomas, streamlined standards, and skills-based assessment pilots. In 2026, the state board approved a redesigned accountability system that goes beyond traditional academic measures to include durable skills, work-based learning, and diploma seals.
• After the California State Board of Education adopted its Portrait of a Learner in May 2026, the state invested $50 million to expand the Secondary School Redesign Pilot to support local innovation, elevate existing models, and inspire others to innovate.
• The Washington State Board of Education and the Mastery-Based Learning Collaborative recommended development of a statewide, competency-based transcript to more clearly communicate student achievement to colleges and employers.
• Kentucky’s high school transformation work centers relationship building and a culture of trust. As such, the state board’s Portrait of a Learner sets an example for districts to adopt their own—which nearly all have done—and legislation shaped by the Kentucky United We Learn Council offers pathways for school communities to develop local accountability systems.
• Missouri‘s Success-Ready Students Network brings public schools together to advance competency-based mindsets and personalized learning opportunities. State leaders also incorporated individual student planning into its school counseling program, pairing every student with a counselor-guided plan for life after high school.

The report cites barriers to scaling transformed high schools: entrenched mindsets about what high school should look like, policies that reinforce traditional models, and a lack of implementation support. Yet states can set conditions that make transformation possible and sustainable by developing a vision for graduates, making space for innovation, prioritizing engagement and relevance, rethinking assessment and accountability, and investing in educator capacity.

“High school transformation is work worth doing and work that must be done,” write KnowledgeWorks’ Jon Alfuth and NASBE’s Celina Pierrottet and Caroline Flower. “Our hope is that the leading states highlighted here can illuminate the role states can and should play in creating the conditions for widespread, meaningful change in the design of high school.”

The full report, States’ Role in Transforming High School: Evidence, Trends, and the Path Forward, is available here.

 

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