Framingham Public Schools — Curriculum

Over the 2025-26 school year, the Framingham Public Schools curriculum agenda moved steadily toward more flexible, competency-based structures. The earliest development came in November 2025, when the committee unanimously adopted new graduation competency rules that replaced a strictly course-based model with course- and mastery-based requirements. Students must now show mastery in aligned English, math, and science work—and, beginning with the class of 2027, U.S. history—through an assessment, capstone, portfolio, or equivalent measure.

In December 2025, the committee turned to expanding early learning, unanimously approving five-day preschool and pre-kindergarten programming for 2026-27. The decision followed review of staff workload, special-education evaluation capacity, IEP-meeting coverage, and the implementation timeline.

The most recent development came in June 2026, when the district sought a two-year DESE student-learning-time waiver for the FHS Academy at Thayer. The request would replace a strict 990-hour seat-time structure with competency-based, hybrid, and individualized learning safeguards, extending the same flexible, mastery-oriented philosophy already applied to graduation requirements and early learning expansion.