SaTC: EDU: JROTC-CS Project Impact Study

美国各地都急需网络安全人才，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。这与美国国家科学基金会“促进国家健康、繁荣和福利”战略计划的部分内容直接一致；巩固国防；还有其他用途。”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。该项目现在提议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）项目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项目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。研究结果将为项目的设计和实施提供参考，以确保项目为学生提供学习计算机科学和网络安全的公平机会。本研究的结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。它还将有助于我们理解这些教育经历如何影响学习成绩和追求网络安全额外课程和职业的兴趣，以及如何改善高中的网络安全教育。这项为期三年的影响研究将解决两个主要的研究问题。首先，它将研究JROTC- cs经历如何影响JROTC学员的认知（如知识和技能）和非认知（如社会和情感行为）发展。其次，它将研究JROTC-CS经验如何影响学校计算机科学和网络安全课程计划。例如，JROTC-CS项目是否增加了计算机科学和网络安全课程的数量，提高了对这些课程不公平现象的认识，为教师提供了额外的专业发展经验，或者在学校里增加了从事计算机科学和网络安全的学生？将当前的JROTC-CS示范项目与多因素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，从而在项目规模扩大时改善项目的实施。该项目由安全与可信网络空间（SaTC）计划支持，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项目与《联邦网络安全研究与发展战略计划》和《国家隐私研究战略》保持一致，旨在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。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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.