On account of concern about declining achievement levels of high school graduates and proposed state legislation increasing graduation requirements to address this concern, this report analyzes current and proposed high school graduation requirements in Illinois, based on data compiled from local school documents, and compares the data to statistics nationwide, from other states, and from selected urban schools. Major findings are as follows: (1) Illinois' 16 unit requirement falls at midpoint relative to other states; (2) 75 percent of the states exceed Illinois requirements in English, math, science, and social studies; (3) only two schools exceed the requirements specified in proposed state legislation; (4) the proposed legislation is unduly restrictive for college-bound and non-college-bound students alike; (5) the proposals necessitate extensive modification of existing policies over a short time for schools lacking adequate resources to make such adjustments; (6) there is no evidence that increasing requirements affects student performance (in fact, there is evidence to the contrary). The study concludes that the quantity of graduation requirements has no discernible effect on achievement, whereas an outcome-based approach, specifying performance expectations, is more likely to achieve desired improvements. (TE)