DENVER — Denver Public Schools students aren’t just learning about stocks — they’re trading them, at least in a simulation.
The district partnered with Junior Achievement for a “Stock Market Challenge” Thursday, giving students one hour to grow fictional portfolios in a fast-paced trading environment. Every minute represented a day in the real market, complete with breaking “news” that could sway investment decisions.
“It should be two months of actual, real-life stock market challenges,” said Ryan Rogowski, a marketing teacher at East High School. “They'll have news events that come and go throughout the days that they have to trade on the information that they get.”
For students like East High seniors Harrison Auger and Blake Elliott, the event is a way to fill in gaps they feel schools have historically overlooked.
“I think it's something that's skipped over a lot in school and general education,” Auger said.
The district is putting renewed emphasis on personal finance classes ahead of House Bill 25-1192, which will require all Colorado high school graduates starting in 2027 to complete financial literacy coursework.
“DPS was kind of a little bit ahead of the curve when it came to requiring personal finance,” said Thomas Jefferson High School teacher Jason Klimczak. “Now it's kind of like this is a dedicated class — just a personal finance — that every junior needs to take now.”
Klimczak says the curriculum covers budgeting, credit, investing, insurance, taxes and more. And students are responding positively.
“The kids, for the most part, are saying, like, you know what? This is actually, like, really useful, and it's something that we really like actually having as a class,” he said.
Parents have taken notice as well. “I hear a lot of the times it's like, oh, we never had that in school, or I wish we had that in school,” Klimczak said. “It’s really cool to kind of start rolling it out and kind of being at the front of all this.”
The simulated stock market event also aims to inspire students considering finance careers. “For those who are looking at that as a career path, having more to pursue and kind of more to interact with, and really kind of make that idea become more of a reality for them, is what this does today,” Rogowski said.
Elliott said Investment Club at East High has already been helping students get ahead of the new mandate. “That was sort of the point with Investment Club, is to get ahead of that,” he said. “I would say it's really good that they're including that in the coursework.”
