Abstract
We find that states exhibit a wide variation in the types of economics standards they have implemented for their public schools. This variation means that some teachers face a very high bar in terms of the level at which they are expected to teach economics, while other teachers face a fairly low bar. The results are used to construct four groups of states that are defined by higher and lower degrees of completeness and specificity in their standards. These groupings, which show how particular states compare with other reference states, suggest that states with more complete standards are more likely to have grade-level breakdowns, while states with less complete standards tend to have economics standards defined by grade clusters.