SaTC: EDU: JROTC-CS Project Impact Study

网络安全人才是美国各地急需的，以确保与国防，劳动力，医疗保健，金融生态系统等相关的数据得到保护。这与国家科学基金会的战略计划“促进国家健康，繁荣和福利;确保国防;以及其他目的”的一部分直接一致。为了满足对更多网络安全专业人员的需求，CSforALL（纽约市计算机科学教育基金会）启动了一个私人资助的示范项目，将网络安全作为初级预备役军官训练团（JROTC）学生在高中学习的课程的一部分。现在提出的项目将正在进行的示范项目与严格的研究相结合，以调查JROTC计算机科学（JROTC-CS）计划对网络安全和计算机科学教育的学生和机构成果的影响。该项目将专门研究JROTC-CS计划在不同背景下的影响，如种族/民族，性别，社会经济地位，宽带接入和地理位置。结果将为该计划的设计和实施提供信息，以确保该计划为学生提供学习计算机科学和网络安全的公平机会。这项研究的成果将包括收集数据的新工具，以衡量网络安全教育经验对高中生的影响。这也将有助于我们了解这些教育经验如何影响学业成绩和追求额外的课程和职业生涯在网络安全的兴趣，以及如何提高高中网络安全教育。首先，它将检查的方式，其中JROTC-CS的经验影响的认知（如知识和技能）和非认知（如社会和情感行为）的JROTC学员的发展。其次，它将研究JROTC-CS经验影响计算机科学和网络安全学校课程计划的方式。例如，JROTC-CS计划是否会导致以下方面的增加：提供的计算机科学和网络安全课程数量，对这些课程中不公平现象的认识，教师的额外专业发展经验，或从事计算机科学和网络安全的学校的额外学生？将当前的JROTC-CS示范项目与对多个和混杂因素的研究相结合，将为确保高质量的改进科学模型提供证据，该模型将随着项目规模的扩大而改进项目的实施。该项目得到了安全和值得信赖的网络空间（SaTC）计划的支持，该计划资助解决网络安全和隐私问题的提案，在这种情况下，特别是网络安全教育。SATC计划与联邦网络安全研究和发展战略计划和国家隐私研究战略保持一致，以保护和维护网络系统日益增长的社会和经济效益，同时确保安全和隐私。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Cybersecurity talent is critically needed across the U.S. to ensure the protection of data related to defense, labor workforce, healthcare, financial ecosystem, and more. This directly aligns with part of the National Science Foundation’s Strategic Plan "to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; to secure the national defense; and for other purposes". To address the need for more cybersecurity professionals, CSforALL (New York City Foundation for Computer Science Education) has launched a privately-funded demonstration project to include cybersecurity as a part of courses that Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) students take in high school. The project now proposed aligns the ongoing demonstration project with rigorous research to investigate the impacts of the JROTC computer science (JROTC-CS) program on student and institutional outcomes for cybersecurity and computer science education. The project will specifically examine the impact of the JROTC-CS program across varying contexts, such as race/ethnicity, gender, socio-economic status, access to broadband, and geographic location. The results will inform adaptation of the program’s design and implementation to ensure that the program provides equitable opportunities to students to learn computer science and cybersecurity. The outcome of this study will include new instruments for the collection of data to measure the impact of a cybersecurity education experience on high school students. It will also contribute to our understanding of how these education experiences impact academic achievement and interest in pursuing additional courses and careers in cybersecurity and how to improve cybersecurity education in high schools.This three-year impact study will address two overarching research questions. First, it will examine the ways in which the JROTC-CS experience impacts the cognitive (e.g. knowledge and skills) and non-cognitive (e.g. social and emotional behaviors) development of JROTC cadets. Second, it will examine the ways in which the JROTC-CS experience impacts the school curriculum program in Computer Science and Cybersecurity. For example, does the JROTC-CS program lead to an increase in: the number of courses in computer science and cybersecurity that are offered, awareness of inequities in these courses, additional professional development experiences for teachers, or additional students at the schools who are engaged in computer science and cybersecurity? Aligning the current JROTC-CS demonstration project with research on multiple and confounding factors will provide evidence for ensuring a high-quality improvement science model that improves implementation of the project as it scales.This project is supported by the Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace (SaTC) program, which funds proposals that address cybersecurity and privacy, and in this case specifically cybersecurity education. The SaTC program aligns with the Federal Cybersecurity Research and Development Strategic Plan and the National Privacy Research Strategy to protect and preserve the growing social and economic benefits of cyber systems while ensuring security and privacy.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.