Summary

• Recent D.C. graduates said high school readiness should mean more than academics, with financial literacy standing out as one of the most urgent gaps students believe schools should address.

• Panelists emphasized that internships, experiential learning, and career-connected opportunities make school feel more relevant, improve engagement, and help students build confidence about life after graduation.

• Graduates argued that community service requirements should be meaningful, equitable, and connected to students’ interests or career goals rather than treated as a simple graduation checkbox.

• The discussion also highlighted that strong CTE and career pathways depend on exploration, advising, family inclusion, and equal access to opportunities across all parts of the District.

The D.C. State Board of Education is continuing its work to update D.C.’s high school graduation requirements.

As part of its larger inquiry, the Board held a panel of high school graduates, “Beyond the Diploma: D.C. Graduates Reflect,” to hear directly from students who have recently navigated the transition into college and the workforce. The panelists were:

• Avanti Bennings, Dunbar High School, Class of 2024;
• Jani Cousins, Cesar Chavez Public Charter School for Public Policy, Class of 2025;
• Shayla Dyson, McKinley Technology High School, Class of 2022; and
• Chase McBride, Phelps Architecture, Construction, and Engineering High School, Class of 2025.

Here’s what they had to say…

“Ready” should encompass more than just academics. Graduates want practical life skills, especially financial literacy.

One of the clearest messages from the panel was that academic learning matters, but students need more. Graduates described feeling underprepared for adulthood in ways that schools could address, starting with money.

Shayla Dyson, a 2022 McKinley Technology graduate, urged treating financial literacy as foundational, not optional. She argued that “all high schools should have a financial literacy class or program that is required for all students.” She pointed out that she is about to graduate from college and still finds herself struggling with financial literacy, “highlighting an issue that could and should have been addressed much earlier.”

Chase McBride echoed the point during Q&A with board members. “Financial literacy,” he said, “that needs to be a required class. You need to be financially literate by the time you graduate high school.”

Research shows clear benefits to personal finance education in high school. A December 2025 policy update found that requiring financial literacy in high school was associated with higher credit scores and lower rates of credit delinquency in adulthood. 

Forty-one states now require personal finance education for high school graduation. The District of Columbia is not yet among them. In 2024, The State Board approved District-wide financial literacy standards, but the course aligned to those standards remains optional rather than required. In other words, D.C. has defined what students should learn—now the question is whether graduation requirements will ensure every student actually has the chance to learn it. That question is especially timely because the Office of the State Superintendent of Education’s (OSSE) current proposal for revised graduation requirements would add a 0.5-credit financial literacy course as a requirement, signaling that the policy conversation may already be moving in that direction.

Career exposure is not an “extra.” It is what makes school feel real.

Panelists repeatedly said that internships, experiential learning programs, and career-connected opportunities are the moments when school clicked into place.

Avanti Bennings shared that when DCPS introduced programs like City as a Classroom and the High School Internship Program, school started to feel more meaningful because there was a direct connection between class and life after graduation. Once these experiential programs entered the picture, her motivation and attendance improved.

Jani Cousins, who grew up in Ward 7, described something similar. The variety of internships, after-school programs, and youth opportunities in the city gave Cousins the space to explore interests and weigh options. “These programs gave me the ability to navigate the world beyond the diploma,” Cousins said, “giving me the skill sets that I need to pursue higher education, to operate in professional settings, and to have a network to always resort to when things get tough.”

Newer national survey evidence suggests career-connected learning is linked to stronger student engagement: in a 2024 Gallup survey (conducted with the New Hampshire Learning Initiative), 15% of students with no career-connected learning experiences were engaged in school, compared to 26% of students with at least one experience—and 45% among students who participated in 10 or more career-connected activities. The implication is straightforward: students engage, persist, and plan intentionally when we treat career exploration as a core part of the high school experience, not something students stumble into if they are lucky.

Community service should feel like a growth experience, not a compliance task.

As for the Class of 2026, DCPS requires students to complete 100 community service hours as part of graduation requirements, and the hours must be non-paying, voluntary service completed through approved organizations. While the State Board considers proposed updates to graduation requirements, including a proposal to reduce the service requirement from 100 hours to 60 and broaden it from unpaid “community service” to a wider definition of “community engagement,” panelists emphasized that “service should remain purposeful and equitable.”

Bennings acknowledged that community service helps build civic awareness and responsibility but argued that, as a graduation requirement, it should connect to a clear purpose. In her written testimony, Bennings wrote: “If the requirement is lowered, I encourage the Board to ensure the remaining hours are meaningful, structured, and connected to skill-building, not just a checkbox for graduation.”

During the question and answer portion of the panel, Bennings elaborated on what “meaningful” looks like in practice: putting students in service settings that connect to their interests and possible career paths, so that service feels like an opportunity to learn.

Bennings also made a key point for equity. Many students in D.C. work out of necessity, not preference. Some prioritize jobs over school because they are helping support themselves or their families. Paid opportunities that still provide a benefit to the community can be a more realistic pathway for those students, if those opportunities are structured and safe.

That concern is reflected in OSSE’s current proposal, which would not only reduce the number of required hours but also expand the definition of eligible experiences. By shifting from “community service” to “community engagement,” the proposal suggests a more flexible model that could better account for students whose responsibilities, financial realities, or career interests make traditional unpaid service harder to access.

Trades and CTE pathways succeed when students can explore options, get strong advising, and their families are included.

Chase McBride, a 2025 Phelps ACE graduate now working locally as an electrical apprentice, described how rotating through multiple Career and Technical Education (CTE) areas before committing helped him discover what he truly wanted. He started with HVAC technician, moved to engineering, and eventually landed on electrical, where he “found [his] calling” when he powered his first light bulb.

When asked whether he would have preferred to choose his CTE course from the start, McBride was honest: “I think I would have just jumped into something I wasn’t ready for.” The structure of rotating through options, guided by his counselor, was what allowed him to make a good decision.

McBride also highlighted how his counselor involved his family in decisions, and he found that inclusion helpful. His CTE director, Ms. Teyibo, connected him and his peers to career-based field trips and summer internships that were relevant to their pathways. He described visits to McDean headquarters, the International Association of Ironworkers, and career fairs, as well as an IT internship at Trinity College and a NAF Track summer program that included a walkthrough of an active construction site.

The takeaway here is not just “CTE is good.” It is that CTE works best as a guided discovery process, where students can test options before choosing a pathway and where adults help families understand the opportunities.

Opportunity is uneven across D.C., and students notice that disparity in real time.

Jani Cousins described the value of programs, internships, and youth opportunities that helped build networks and recover when personal challenges hit. But Cousins also made a broader point: these opportunities should not be concentrated in only a few parts of the city. “Where I come from,” Cousins said, “the lack of resources was starkly different from the area I went to school. The gap between what we learned where I’m at and the workload, it didn’t really match up at all.”

In their testimony, Cousins put it plainly: opportunities “should be more available…they should stretch across all of the District, enriching the city’s youth, accommodating to all demographics, and backgrounds.”

A November 2024 report from the D.C. Policy Center found that while career asset building opportunities exist across the city, students in Wards 7 and 8 travel farther to school and face greater barriers to participation, including lack of awareness and limited time in their schedules. Recruitment for these programs happens mostly through word of mouth and school promotions, which means students outside well-connected networks are more likely to miss out.

This is a graduation requirements question, too. If we attach requirements to experiences (service, capstones, career exposure), we should ask: do students across wards and school sectors have equal access to high-quality versions of those experiences.

What comes next

If there is a unifying thread across the panel, it is this: graduates are not asking for high school to be easier or have standards lowered; they are just asking for it to be more relevant. More practice with money. More exposure to careers. More widespread access to programs that build skills confidence and direction.

It’s important the State Board hear these perspectives as it continues its work reviewing proposed updates to graduation requirements. The voices from this panel offer a grounding reminder of why that work matters and what it looks like when it lands, or when it does not, in the lives of real students.

The State Board is continuing to gather input from students, families, educators, and community members as this work moves forward. The High School Graduation Requirements Task Force is working on formulating its recommendations for the Board. The Board will then finalize recommendations for OSSE later this spring. To stay up to date, visit the State Board’s website.