Here is what my generation was required to complete in History: 4th grade, California History; 5th Grade American History; 6th grade, current American History; 9th Grade, Latin American History; 11th grade, 1 year American history and 1 year American Literature; 12th Grade 1 semester American Government and 1 semester California Government. The University System 1 Semester California Government; 1 year American History to graduate.(American Government was an elective).
California history is still taught in the fourth grade, and American history in the fifth grade.
Every fourth grader in California is supposed to research one of the mission churches established by the Spaniards in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Nowadays, the students usually build a model of the mission. If you meet a native Californian, ask him what he did for his fourth grade mission project or report. Mine was on Mission Nuestra Señora de la Soledad in Monterey County.