Holocaust and Genocide Standards

Standards for Teaching About The Holocaust and Other Genocides

“Each school district board of education and charter school is to incorporate the standards on Holocaust and genocide studies adopted by the state board into an existing course that is currently a condition of high school graduation for school years beginning on or after July 1, 2023.”

This webpage highlights the Holocaust and genocide standards that were approved by the State Board of Education (SBE) in November 2022.  NOTE:  The Holocaust and Genocide Studies Committee that made recommendations to the SBE, agreed that introducing students to the concepts and ideas of genocide in grades 6 through 8 would support their learning of genocide in the later grades.  To skip to the high school standards, click here.

Underlined text applies to the language that is related to the Holocaust and other genocides.

6th Grade:

• History GLE 2 EOb. Determine and explain the historical context of key people, events, cause and effect relationships, and ideas over time including the examination of different perspectives from people involved. For example: the complex interactions between majority and minority groups and individuals involved in European colonization in the Western hemisphere.
• History GLE 2 Colorado Essential Skills #3: Plan and evaluate complex solutions to global challenges within the Western Hemisphere using multiple disciplinary lenses such as ethnic, historical, and scientific (Critical Thinking and Analysis).
• Geography GLE 2 Colorado Essential Skills #2: Plan and evaluate complex solutions to global challenges within the Western Hemisphere using multiple disciplinary lenses such as ethnic, historical, and scientific (Global and Cultural Awareness).
• Civics GLE 1 Colorado Essential Skills #2: Analyze how a specific problem can manifest itself at local, regional, and global levels, and how media can influence beliefs and behaviors (Media Literacy).
• Civics GLE 1 Colorado Essential Skills #3: Plan and evaluate complex solutions to global challenges in the Western Hemisphere, using multiple disciplinary lenses such as ethnic, historical, and scientific (Interpersonal Communication, Global and Cultural Awareness).
• Civics GLE 2 Colorado Essential Skills #2: Plan and evaluate complex solutions to global challenges in the Western Hemisphere, using multiple disciplinary lenses such as ethnic, historical, and scientific (Civic Engagement, Global and Cultural Awareness).

7^th grade

• History GLE 2 EOc. Describe the interactions, conflicts, and contributions of various peoples and cultures that have lived in or migrated within/to the Eastern Hemisphere. For example: conflicts over land and resources between countries, the foundations of eastern world religions, the historical roots of current issues, the Chinese Cultural Revolution, including acts of violence towards groups of people, and the discriminatory policies and events preceding those acts.
• History GLE 2 Colorado Essential Skills #2: Plan and evaluate complex solutions to global challenges in the Eastern Hemisphere, using multiple disciplinary lenses such as ethnic, historical, and scientific (Civic Engagement).
• Geography GLE 1 Colorado Essential Skills #4: Plan and evaluate complex solutions to global challenges within the Eastern Hemisphere that are appropriate to their contexts using multiple disciplinary lenses such as ethnic, historical, and scientific (Civic Engagement, Global and Cultural Awareness).
• Geography GLE 2 Colorado Essential Skills #2: Plan for and evaluate complex solutions to global challenges using multiple disciplinary lenses such as ethnic, historical, and scientific (Civic Engagement, Global and Cultural Awareness).
• Geography GLE 2 Nature and Skills of Geography #1: Geographic thinkers study ethnic and religious groups, in order to explain how they view a region and evaluate the use of resources in a region to predict and propose future uses.
• Civics GLE 1 EOc. Give examples illustrating the interactions between nations and their citizens. For example: South Africa’s system of Apartheid, human rights violations, genocide, Shari’ah law, government sanctioned economic policies, and socialized healthcare and education.
• Civics GLE 1 Inquiry Question #3: How can laws, governments, peacekeeping organizations, and citizens work to recognize the stages of genocide in order to identify instances of genocide, so that it may be prevented and eliminated in the future?
• Civics GLE 2 Inquiry Question #1: What are fundamental human rights and how are they protected?

8^th grade

• History GLE 2 Inquiry Question #2: How was North American colonial settlement perceived by Indigenous Peoples, and how did this impact their culture and survival throughout the continent?
• Geography GLE 1 Nature and Skills of Geography #4: Geographic thinkers respond to historical and spatial literature, including diverse narratives, to understand issues from a spatial perspective.
• Geography GLE 2 EOb. Analyze patterns of conflict and cooperation that resulted from human migration and the economic, political, ethnic, and social implications of those interactions.
• Economics GLE 1 Inquiry Question #4: How does where and how you purchase products affect cultural, social, economic, and environmental conditions?
• Economics GLE 1 Nature and Skills of Economics #5:  Economic thinkers understand that economic actions have both direct and indirect effects on people living in poverty, children, the disabled, ethnic, religious, and cultural groups who may not have a voice in decision-making.
• Civics GLE 1 Inquiry Question #4: How has civic participation impacted the development of government and civil rights in America?
• Civics GLE 2 EOe. Discuss the tensions between individual rights and liberties with state, tribal, and national laws.

High School

• U.S. History:
  • GLE 2 EOc. Analyze the complexity of events throughout United States history. For example: the Civil Rights Movement (e.g., Double V Campaign, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Stonewall Riots); migration, immigration, and displacement (e.g., immigration and citizenship legislation, Japanese American incarceration, and debates over tribal sovereignty); landmark court cases (e.g., Keyes v. School District #1 Denver, Brown v. Board of Education, and Obergefell v. Hodges), and the war on terror (e.g., 9/11, Afghanistan and Iraq wars, Middle Eastern discrimination, and the evolution of U.S. counterterrorism efforts).
  • GLE 2 EOh. Analyze and evaluate ideas critical to the understanding of American history. Including but not limited to: populism, progressivism, isolationism, imperialism, capitalism, racism, extremism, nationalism, patriotism, anti-communism, environmentalism, liberalism, fundamentalism, and conservatism.
  • GLE 2 EOj. Examine and evaluate how the United States was involved in and responded to international events over the course of history. Including but not limited to the World Wars, the Holocaust, the Nuremburg trials, Cold War policies, Berlin Airlift, Korean War, Vietnam War, and the genocides in Bosnia and Darfur.

• World History:
  • GLE 3 EOa. Evaluate continuity and change over the course of world history. For example: social and political movements related to nationality, ethnicity, and gender; revolutions; the World Wars; the Cold War; independence movements/decolonization and 19th, 20th and 21st  century genocides such as the Armenian Genocide; the Holocaust perpetrated by the fascist German Nazi Party (National Socialist German Workers Party) and its collaborators; the Sand Creek Massacre, Cambodian Genocide; the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics murder of Ukrainian nationals; genocides conducted by the Communist Party of China (CPC) against its political opponents during the Totalization Period, Collectivization, the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, and Mao’s Famine; and the current genocide of the Uyghurs; as well as genocides that have taken place in Rwanda, Darfur and Bosnia.
  • GLE 3 Inquiry Question #5: How are human rights violated and prosecuted in a world of different nations and cultures?
  • GLE 3 Inquiry Question #6: What role has censorship, propaganda, and media control played in modern genocides and other acts of mass violence?
  • GLE 3 Inquiry Question #7: How did various Indigenous Peoples respond to and experience colonization?

• Geography
  • GLE 3 EOd. Analyze how culture, and cooperation and conflict influence both the division and unification of Earth.  For example: international agreements, political patterns, national boundaries, and how cultural differences and conflict over land may lead to genocide.
  • GLE 3 EOf. Examine geographic concepts through the lens of multiple diverse perspectives from various regions of the world and with consideration for indigenous, dominant, and marginalized populations. Including but not limited to: Indigenous Peoples in Colorado, Christians in the Middle East, the Uyghurs in China, and tribal groups in Afghanistan.

• Economics
  • GLE 2 EOg. Explore how economic crises create an environment where genocide is allowed to occur. For example: Rationing, scapegoating, including the incremental dehumanization of minority groups, and mitigating conflict over resources.
  • GLE 2 Inquiry Question #8: What role does economics play in genocide?

• Civics
  • GLE 2 Inquiry Question #18: Why has the U.S. government’s response to genocide and other acts of mass violence varied so widely?
  • GLE 2 Inquiry Question #19: What foreign policy tools does the U.S. government have to respond to mass spread violence and genocides around the world? What factors influence how the U.S. government responds?
  • GLE 2 Inquiry Question #20: What is the role of failed states and authoritarian regimes in genocide and other acts of mass violence?