The MEG intentionally redesigns the four years of high school so that students build a strong foundation and gain greater flexibility as they demonstrate readiness.

• Grades 9–10: Students focus on building foundational academic skills, disciplinary knowledge, and durable skills while beginning career exploration. Learning can occur through coursework and other experiences aligned with the student’s EDP.

• By the end of Grade 10: Students complete a statewide-comparable Mastery Check of foundational reading, writing, and mathematical reasoning. The purpose is to identify whether students have the needed foundational skills and to provide timely support when they do not.

• Grades 11–12: Students have greater flexibility to pursue advanced coursework, dual enrollment, work-based learning, apprenticeships, career and technical education, early or middle college, and other experiences aligned with their EDP while continuing to demonstrate the skills required for graduation.

This creates a high school experience that becomes more personalized as students demonstrate they are ready for greater independence and deeper learning. Some students may follow a traditional course sequence; others may build a more customized pathway. The expectation for mastery remains rigorous for every student.

Every student develops an Educational Development Plan (EDP) beginning in Grade 7 that connects their career interests and goals to their education. The plan is reviewed regularly with each student and family and supported by high-quality college and career advising so that it actively guides course choices, career experiences, and postsecondary planning.

A strong EDP should help students understand their interests, connect those interests to real economic opportunities, and identify the postsecondary education, training, credentials, and experiences that can help them reach their goals. It should be a living plan—not a compliance document.

The EDP can also serve as a place to organize evidence of learning, career-focused experiences, a professional résumé, and other milestones that help students prepare for what comes next.

The MEG establishes clear statewide expectations for what every Michigan graduate should know and be able to do, while giving students and schools greater flexibility in how students get there.

Students demonstrate mastery across three broad areas:

• Foundational Academic Skills: Reading, writing, and mathematical reasoning aligned to state academic content standards.

• Disciplinary Literacies: The knowledge and ways of thinking students develop through science, social studies and civics, finance and economics, health and wellness, world languages, and the fine, performing, and visual arts.

• Durable Skills: Transferable skills such as communication, collaboration, critical thinking, creativity, problem solving, and leadership that students need in college, career, and life.

Students can develop these skills through many different learning experiences, including traditional and advanced coursework, project-based learning, community-based learning, dual enrollment, internships, apprenticeships, career and technical education, and work-based learning. Districts retain flexibility in how they organize these opportunities and how students demonstrate mastery.

In the MEG, mastery means students earn credit by demonstrating what they know and can do, rather than simply completing a required course or amount of seat time. Students can build and demonstrate mastery through coursework as well as projects, portfolios, career-focused education, work-based learning, dual enrollment, and other experiences inside and outside the traditional classroom.

A Mastery Check by the end of Grade 10 ensures students have the foundational reading, writing, and mathematical reasoning skills they need, so they can spend more of Grades 11 and 12 pursuing personalized, career-connected learning aligned with their goals and interests.

The Mastery Check should be statewide-comparable and designed to answer a straightforward question: has the student developed the foundational academic skills needed to successfully pursue the next stage of high school and life after graduation? Students who need additional time or support should receive it and have additional opportunities to demonstrate mastery. Students with disabilities should have appropriate accommodations and individualized ways to demonstrate learning consistent with their educational plans.

Beyond foundational academics, students demonstrate mastery of disciplinary literacies and durable skills through multiple measures and learning experiences. The MEG is intentionally less prescriptive about any single assessment or method of demonstration; the goal is a credible body of evidence that shows what a student knows and can do.

Michigan’s education system is still largely built around a century-old assumption that learning is measured by how much time a student spends sitting in a classroom. The MEG modernizes that system by recognizing that meaningful learning can also happen in workplaces, colleges, training programs, communities, online environments, and through hands-on projects and experiences.

Michigan’s pupil accounting, instructional-time, and credit rules should be redesigned to support these opportunities while maintaining strong accountability for student learning and public resources. Districts should have flexibility to organize the school day and year in ways that support student learning rather than being constrained by seat-time rules that were designed for a different era.

Career exploration and preparation become part of every student’s education, instead of something reserved only for students enrolled in traditional career and technical education programs.

Students participate in a sequence of career-focused learning and experiences beginning in middle school and continuing through high school. Depending on student interests, local opportunities, and the EDP, these experiences can include career exploration, job shadows, work-based learning, internships, apprenticeships, dual enrollment, industry credentials, project-based learning, career simulations, and other experiences that connect academics to the real world.

The goal is not to require every student to follow the same career pathway. It is to ensure every student has enough meaningful exposure and experience to make informed decisions about what comes next and to graduate with the skills and tools—including a professional résumé—needed to pursue those goals.

Greater flexibility cannot mean lower expectations or fewer opportunities for some students. Schools and districts should regularly examine participation, access, and outcomes to ensure students of different backgrounds have equitable access to advanced coursework, career-connected learning, dual enrollment, work-based learning, and other personalized pathways.

The state should use this information to identify gaps, provide support, and ensure that greater flexibility expands opportunity rather than creating new forms of tracking. Accountability should focus both on whether students have access to high-quality opportunities and whether they ultimately demonstrate the knowledge and skills required for graduation.