Teaching about the Holocaust and Genocide

2022 Holocaust and Genocide Standards

In November 2022, the State Board of Education approved the Colorado Academic Standards for Social Studies.  Within these standards are the standards for the Holocaust and other genocides.  This document illustrates ONLY the standards for the Holocaust and other genocides that can be used by school districts to determine which courses required for graduation will include the standards for teaching about the Holocaust and other genocides Access the complete 2022 adopted standards for social studies (pdf).

Introduction

On July 8, 2020, Governor Polis signed into law HB20-1336 (PDF) which established the Holocaust and Genocide Studies Committee. In addition, this legislation included elements focusing on the teaching of the Holocaust and Genocide topics in Colorado. Directed by this legislation, the “Colorado Department of Education is responsible for creating and maintaining a publicly available resource bank of materials pertaining to the Holocaust and Genocide…”

Thus, the Holocaust and Genocide Studies Committee was responsible for the review and vetting of materials included in this resource bank and worked diligently to provide materials at a variety of levels of learning which provides a means for scaffolding during instruction. In addition, the committee made every effort to ensure that this collection contains the highest quality and most up-to-date resources for both teaching and learning about the Holocaust and other Genocides.

The committee recognizes that the collection is not comprehensive, but this carefully curated collection provides a wealth of resources from local, state, national and international organizations that provide updated research, teaching materials, literature, and other resources on Holocaust and genocide topics for teaching and learning in the classroom and community setting.

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