Building Michigan Graduation Standards Differently: A Policy Created by the Many, Not the Few

Have you ever been involved in or observed the creation—and eventual passage—of legislation? If you have, you know how contentious the process can be. Typically, a small group develops an idea, writes a bill, gathers a few allies, finds a sponsor, and introduces it. From there, the other side mobilizes to stop it. The process often becomes adversarial, with winners and losers determined more by power and persistence than by shared purpose. The result is legislation that only works for a handful of people instead of the entire state.

At Launch Michigan, we’ve intentionally taken a very different approach.

For the past several years, we’ve been working to develop a new high school graduation standard for Michigan students. Instead of advancing a single perspective and fighting to get it implemented, we’ve focused on bringing many perspectives together from the very beginning.

This is a fundamentally different way to build policy. Rather than battling it out at the end, we are bringing stakeholders together early to craft something stronger—something that reflects the best thinking across sectors while setting a high bar of rigor for Michigan students.

When we first began developing what became the Michigan Education Guarantee, we started by listening. We talked with our multi-sector board members and partners, who included education, labor, business, and philanthropy. We studied what other states had done. We examined data on how students themselves felt about their high school experience and whether they believed it prepared them for their futures. We spoke with teachers about what they would change if they could redesign school to truly serve students. We listened to superintendents and education leaders describe what they believe needs to change in Michigan’s system.

We brought all that input together using a systems-design lens to create the original Michigan Education Guarantee policy framework. But developing a policy vision is only the first step. The next—and critical—challenge was figuring out how to make that vision real and meaningful to as many stakeholders as possible.

That starts with high school graduation standards.

High school graduation standards are the backbone of how schooling is structured in Michigan, as well as every other state. They define the end goal—the diploma—and shape everything that leads up to it, from high school course design to earlier grade experiences. We knew Michigan needed new graduation requirements, but we also knew those requirements had to reflect not only research and best practice, but also the lived experiences and buy-in of educators, students, higher education, the business community, and the skilled trades, to name a few.

Connecting education to the economy is essential—and those perspectives rarely sit at the same table.

We chose a collaborative, stakeholder-driven model of policy development. With every iteration of the legislation—we are currently refining the third draft—we’ve shared drafts widely and asked for feedback from special educators, teachers, counselors, principals, district administrators, college access advocates, higher education partners, superintendents, intermediate school districts, the Michigan Department of Education, the governor’s office, the state budget office, and many others working across the K-12 ecosystem, as well as business, labor, and philanthropy stakeholders.

Now, we’re entering the next phase: formal workgroups.

More than 80 people have signed up to participate. These workgroups will tackle both remaining points of tension—areas where philosophical choices must be made—as well as the details that shape real student experience: the skills that will be specified, the structure of requirements, and how the Michigan Education Guarantee comes to life for students and educators.

When legislation is introduced later this spring, it will reflect the input of hundreds of voices across multiple sectors and stakeholder groups.

For Launch Michigan, the goal is not just to write good policy. It’s to build understanding, alignment, and shared ownership before legislation is introduced—so that the process is collaborative rather than combative, and so that the work truly centers Michigan students and the future of our state.