OSPI proposes new ELA standards with media literacy; board debates graduation-credit changes under Future Ready

OSPI Associate Director Angela Allen presented draft revisions to the state's English language arts standards at the April 15 State Board of Education meeting, highlighting new emphasis on media literacy, digital citizenship and a standardized coding system to help districts map existing materials.

"We are identifying and bolding those standards in the learning standards documents that are the most essential academic skills and concepts," Allen said, adding that media literacy and digital citizenship "are those necessary updates in ELA." OSPI released the ELA bulletin in March and opened a public survey that will remain available through May 3. The agency is aiming for formal adoption in August so districts have a practice year before the standards become required in the 2728 school year.

Allen detailed implementation supports: an Excel crosswalk so educators can sort and filter standards, a Word introduction with background context, a "what's new" document, and office hours to discuss domains like speaking/listening, media literacy and research. She emphasized that Smarter Balanced will remain the state assessment vehicle and that assessment alignment will be phased; math alignment will be sooner while ELA adjustments may need extra time for piloting.

"We are releasing with each set of standards a few different documents... Excel spreadsheet... standards be sortable, filterable," Allen told the board. She also said some changes are reorganizational (combining strands such as informational and literary reading into a single reading domain) and others add explicit expectations for publishing online and evaluating digital information.

The board then continued work on the Future Ready draft credit framework produced by a task force and three subject-area subcommittees. Staff summarized recommendations that would narrow the third math credit to four options (Algebra II/Integrated Math 3, data science, statistics, or financial algebra) with a suggested senior-year quantitative reasoning default; change the current half-credit civics/contemporary world problems requirement into a 1-credit civics-focused course (with contemporary world problems embedded); increase health from a half credit to a full credit; and move some courses (art, for example) from core requirements into personalized pathway requirements (PPR) to create more flexibility.

Task-force materials also discussed widening use of CTE course equivalencies so that when a student meets both the academic and CTE standards for a course, the district could award both credits (one CTE and one academic), which staff said would create an incentive to scale meaningful integrated courses. Board members probed implementation capacity, higher-education acceptance of course equivalencies, staffing and funding constraints in small or rural districts, and whether financial education should be a standalone required credit or embedded across courses.

Board members emphasized the need to protect students furthest from educational justice and to ensure career and technical education pathways maintain postsecondary options. The task force will refine recommendations in May; staff signaled more conversation tomorrow and follow-up work on implementation details such as teacher preparation, course coding, and district offering requirements.

Ending: OSPI urged educators and stakeholders to use the public survey and office hours; the board will continue Future Ready deliberations in the next session and the task force will incorporate board feedback for its May meeting.