In my experience, “Critical Thinking Skills” means blind acceptance of Marxist doctrine, as far as the education establishment is concerned.
I think in asking 8th graders to determine if a Holocaust occurred is an opening for a bad teacher to tell them they are wrong, if they say... yes. Almost like a set up to contradict the truth, which is logical thinking, when dealing with a Marxist.
What liberals call critical thinking is anything but. The liberal version of critical thinking has predetermined outcomes with lots of prodding to get there. Kind of like global warming.