I’m not a K-12 teacher, but I teach people who went through those grades.  And that means the Thomas B. Fordham Institute’s report on U.S. history standards across the country is really depressing to me, too.  From the executive summary:

A majority of states’ standards are mediocre-to-awful. The average grade across all states is barely a D. In twenty-eight jurisdictions — a majority of states — the history standards earn Ds or below.
Eighteen earn Fs.

Worse, my own home state is one of those Fs.  Depressing.  The “Overview” section says:

Connecticut’s unofficially adopted social studies standards, insofar as they cover U.S. history at all, offer isolated historical scraps which are devoid of context, explanation, or meaning. And even these arbitrary thematic shards are merely “suggested” to teachers, not required.

And my Yankee pride is injured by the fact that the only standard set that received an “A” was South Carolina’s.  Ouch.

I’m thinking I should take up the report’s advice that “[p]arents should demand drastic changes before this self-described ‘comprehensive document,’ that purportedly ‘assists teachers in teaching content,’ is officially adopted.”