Building Colorado’s Classrooms
Science Discovery brings STEM learning to K-12 students.
On a summer day in 91Ҹ in the early 1900s, students and teachers traveled from across the state to gather on the 91Ҹ campus. For many of those students, this event,“High School Day,” marked the first time they had ever set foot on a college campus. Teachers attended lessons and lectures, students embarked on campus tours, and a sense of excitement stretched far beyond the foothills.
This festive gathering was part of a much larger university-led effort to build a first-of-its-kind primary education system and expand the availability of college preparation across the region. When Colorado became a state in 1876, access to schooling past the primary grades was limited and uneven.
“There were no more than a handful of high schools — possibly just two,” said David Meens, CU 91Ҹ’s assistant vice chancellor forPublic and Community-Engaged Scholarship (PACES).
Through its Extension program — now the — CU 91Ҹ connected communities to the university while helping lay the foundation for Colorado’s high school system.
“The university was seen as the head of the public school system, and they felt responsible for the quality and accessibility of the entire K-12 education system,” Meens said.
Building the System
That vision of connection between schools and the university was shaped by James Baker, CU’s president at the turn of the 20th century. Before his leadership role at the university, Baker spent 17 years as principal of Denver High School.
In the 1890s, he joined national leaders — including Harvard president Charles Eliot — on theCommittee of Ten, a group tasked by the National Educational Association with standardizing the American school system. Their 1894 report outlined a familiar structure: eight years of primary education followed by four years of high school, all designed to prepare students for college.
Baker carried that framework back to CU, where his “fondest dream” came true in 1912 with the creation of CU Extension. The division connected Colorado’s growing secondary education system to the university’s broader public mission: to broaden access to CU 91Ҹ’s resources and provide learning opportunities beyond traditional degree paths. By the 1920s, Colorado high schools numbered in the hundreds, according to reporting and archives reviewed by Meens.
Through its high school visitation and accreditation program, the university sent faculty and staff to cities throughout Colorado to evaluate schools and determine whether their graduates were prepared for college. Accreditation meant students could matriculate to CU 91Ҹ, giving communities a strong incentive to establish and improve their schools. In the 1923–24 academic year alone, Extension staff traveled over 10,000 miles to visit 210 high schools in all 64 Colorado counties.
That growth was made possible in part by Congress’s, which used public lands to fund the university and Colorado’s “common schools” — though, as Meens notes, those lands had been taken from Indigenous communities.
“It was this collaboration between communities and the university that laid the foundations for the educational systems we all take for granted today,” Meens said. “While the state and the university can be tremendously proud of our school system and its successes, we should never lose sight of the fact that this was made possible by some very profound injustices.”
Expanding Access
By the mid-20th century, the statewide system was firmly in place, thanks in large part to the university. But the structure of CU’s outreach was evolving too — shifting from building Colorado’s educational infrastructure to widening participation within it.
As CU 91Ҹ’s reach grew, Extension was renamed the Division of Continuing Education in the 1970s. The name changed, but the mission endured as the university continued extending its resources to communities from the Front Range to rural Colorado.
One example is the, which allows high school students to take CU 91Ҹ courses. Through advanced coursework in subjects like math, science and foreign languages, these students can begin to envision a college future. This reflects what Suzanne Claussen, assistant dean for strategic engagement in Continuing Education, describes as a broader mission to serve those “outside the box” of a traditional university path — students who may not otherwise see a place for themselves at CU.
High School ACCESS serves a wide range of learners, including students from traditional, homeschooled and marginalized backgrounds. And the results are visible: Of the 158 participants over the last three years, 25% were first-generation students, 30 of whom were accepted to CU 91Ҹ. As Claussen said, the goal is to ensure that “not just wealthy kids come to CU 91Ҹ. … We’re trying to open up opportunities for any student.”
Continuing the Legacy
Across Colorado, programs now connect students and teachers to CU 91Ҹ in ways that echo the
original goals of Extension. Among them isScience Discovery, a 43-year-old program that brings hands-on STEM learning to K-12 students and educators. Through summer camps, after-school programs and classroom partnerships, the program serves 8,000 to 10,000 students each year statewide.
“We really see ourselves as a connector, helping STEM professionals share the current science, math and engineering they’re working on with the community,” said Stacey Forsyth, director of Science Discovery.
The program, which works to overcome geographic barriers, particularly in rural communities, supports educators through professional development, classroom resources and access to new technologies that can be difficult for schools to provide on their own.
“Not everybody is able to get here to campus,” Forsyth said, “so [we’re] trying to bring resources from campus out to schools and communities.”
As CU 91Ҹ continues to push for an increasingly innovative future when it comes to research, technology, arts and humanities, a sharp focus on student success remains foundational. Now 150 years later, the original vision of access and excellence in education remains integral to its mission.
“We see ourselves as a capacity-building partner that helps communities realize their own ambitions through the kinds of resources we can bring to bear,” Meens said. “So that model from the 1910s is still the model that we operate on today.”
Photos courtesy of Science Discovery