When searching for graduation requirements, Pennsylvania confuses arriving families for a specific reason: there is no single state credit number to look up.
The TLDR version: your district sets the credits, and the state sets a separate requirement called Act 158, which every student meets by completing one of five pathways. Two of those pathways run through the Keystone Exams and three don't.
Credits are local in Pennsylvania
Unlike Florida's fixed 24 credits or Georgia's 23 units, Pennsylvania leaves the credit total to each district. Most districts land between 21 and 24 credits, built on a familiar core: four years of English, three each of math, science, and social studies, arts or humanities coursework, health and physical education, and electives. But the exact number and mix belong to your district, so the first document to pull is your district's course catalog, not a state summary.
Act 158 and the five pathways
The statewide piece arrived with Act 158 of 2018, which took full effect with the class of 2023. Instead of one exit exam that every student must pass, Pennsylvania built five doors, and a student only needs to walk through one.
The first two doors run through the Keystone Exams, the state's end-of-course tests in Algebra I, Literature, and Biology, taken when a student finishes each course.
- Keystone Proficiency Pathway: score proficient or advanced on all three exams.
- Keystone Composite Pathway: earn a combined score of at least 4452 across the three exams, with at least one proficient score and no score below basic. This is the safety valve for a student who is strong in two subjects and merely decent in the third.
The other three doors skip Keystone scores entirely.
- CTE Concentrator Pathway: for career and technical education students, who qualify through their program of study and industry-based competency measures instead of exam scores.
- Alternative Assessment Pathway: accepts other established scores and successes, like a qualifying SAT, ACT, or ASVAB result, or performance in Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate courses.
- Evidence-Based Pathway: a portfolio route, built from artifacts like dual enrollment credit, an industry certification, acceptance to a postsecondary program, or a letter guaranteeing full-time employment.
Pennsylvania looked at the exit-exam fights other states had and concluded that a single test should not be the only way to show readiness.
What to actually do with this
First, get the district's credit requirements from the course catalog and treat that as the real checklist. Second, ask which Act 158 pathway your child is on, because counselors track this and the answer should be concrete by junior year, not senior spring. A student who misses proficiency on a Keystone exam retakes it, but the smart move is knowing early which backup pathway fits. Third, if your child is in CTE, dual enrollment, or AP, understand that those choices are not just enrichment here; they can be the graduation pathway itself.
For how Pennsylvania compares nationally, our guide to high school graduation requirements by state maps every state's approach, and what is changing about graduation in 2026 and 2027 tracks the national move away from single exit exams that Pennsylvania anticipated. If you are comparing course loads, weighted versus unweighted GPA explains how the transcript math works.
Data note: pathway rules reflect Pennsylvania's Act 158 of 2018 as implemented by the Pennsylvania Department of Education as of August 2026. Credit totals are set by districts, so confirm the exact requirements with your own district's course catalog.
Sources
Pennsylvania Department of Education: Act 158 Pathways to Graduation Toolkit
State comparison figures from allk12's analysis of state graduation rules, 2026.
