| NSF Org: |
DUE Division Of Undergraduate Education |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | August 2, 2019 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | August 2, 2019 |
| Award Number: | 1902519 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
R. Corby Hovis
chovis@nsf.gov (703)292-4625 DUE Division Of Undergraduate Education EDU Directorate for STEM Education |
| Start Date: | October 1, 2019 |
| End Date: | December 31, 2022 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $253,491.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $253,491.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
1830 W ROMNEYA DR ANAHEIM CA US 92801-1819 (714)808-4752 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
1830 W. Romneya Drive Anaheim CA US 92801-1819 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | Advanced Tech Education Prog |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.076 |
ABSTRACT
This project aims to address the national challenge of increasing the number and skill-level of U.S. cybersecurity professionals. Over the past 30 years, the U.S. economy has shifted from a manufacturing-based economy to one that is more dependent on services, information, and technology. One resulting outcome is the emergence of cybersecurity as a critical, high-demand, high-paying profession. This project aims to improve cybersecurity technician education by enhancing students' STEM knowledge, as well as ensuring that students gain the technical skills and competencies needed to enter the cybersecurity workforce. The project aims to provide a streamlined cybersecurity education pathway from high school into high-paying careers in the cybersecurity industry, particularly for nontraditional, at-risk, and returning high school students who may lack academic preparation or have financial need.
The primary focus of this project is on high school teachers and students, and community college faculty and students (certificate-level and associate degree-level). The overall goal is to develop a cybersecurity education pathway that has multiple entry points and multiple exit points from which students can enter cybersecurity jobs. The specific aims are to enhance cybersecurity curricula, develop high school/college dual enrollment courses, and develop college-level cybersecurity badges and certifications. The project activities are designed to enhance articulation and alignment of cybersecurity education between high schools and colleges, and support teaching of the cybersecurity curriculum by providing professional development activities for secondary school teachers and college faculty. Through outreach activities, the project intends to introduce secondary students to the cybersecurity field, anticipating that many of these students will begin cybersecurity training in high school. These high school courses will build a foundation from which high school graduates could compete for entry-level cybersecurity jobs or pursue higher levels of cybersecurity education. The project will establish a framework for industry internships for students and increase student employability in cybersecurity by awarding digital badges and preparing students to obtain industry certifications. The project will disseminate best practices in implementing cybersecurity guided pathways to the educational community, including the Southern California Community College Consortium and the National Center for Cybersecurity Education. This project is funded by the Advanced Technological Education program that focuses on the education of technicians for the advanced-technology fields that drive the nation's economy.
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.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
The overall goal of the PACE project was to develop and implement a Pathway to Advancement of Cybersecurity Education (PACE) from Middle School (MS) all the way to 4-year College with multiple opportunities for employment exit points.
Throughout the project, besides regular college and dual enrollment students, the following cohorts of students from our partner High School (Magnolia) were tracked as they completed various pathway courses and activities: Cohort1 - class of 2023, Cohort2 - class of 2024, and Cohrot3 – class of 2025.
The key outcomes of this project are as follows:
GOAL1: Establish a comprehensive Cybersecurity Pathway from at least middle school to 4-year institutions with a number of exit points.
- The number of students enrolling in the Cybersecurity certificate by taking the two core courses (CIS 190 & CIS 230) increased from the baseline of 32 to 85 (Year 1), 287 (Year 2) and 253 (Year 3).
- Overall (in 3 years), 815 HS (30% female) students completed a pathway course.
- During the last year of the project, percent female students taking PACE courses was significantly higher among the HS students (39%) compared to the college students (18%).
- Cohort1 completed an advisory college course (CIS 111) in Fall of 2021, the first PACE course (CIS 230) in Spring of 2022, and the second PACE course (CIS 195) in Summer of 2022.
- Cohort1 participated in a number of activities to prepare for PACE including CyberPatriot competition (2021-2022 season), soft skills workshop, mock interviews, mentorship program for females, and guest speakers.
- A team of Cypress College tutors assisted in lab exercises during class sessions of Cohort1 at Magnolia HS (twice per week, Spring 2022).
- All the 23 students in Cohort1 successfully passed the CompTIA ITF+ exam.
- Cohort2 completed a counseling college course (COUN140) and will take the first PACE course (CIS 230) in Spring of 2023.
GOAL2: Encourage visible, fun and popular activities designed to improve student matriculation, persistence, and graduation.
- Magnolia HS Cybersecurity instructors and College mentors used NETLAB system to provide virtual labs for classroom teaching and Cybersecurity training.
- In May of 2022, more than 263 MS/HS students/parents/coaches participated in the virtual award ceremony for the CyberPatriot program (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqmT-eIfEnM).
- During 2021-2022 CyberPatriot season 441 ES, 762 MS, and 3071 HS students participated in CyberPatriot training/competition events.
- During the 2021-2022 CyberPatriot season the number of participations increased by 23% (from 3485 in 2020-2021 to 4274).
- The CyberPatriot course modules were increased by 173% (from 23 to 101).
- The NextFlex PACE group participated in the national competition
GOAL3: Improve the number and quality of applicants for high paying Cybersecurity careers.
- Based on the industry advisory recommendations, the curriculum is revised to include bootcamp sessions to prepare students for industry certifications such as CompTIA ITF+, Network+, Security+, CySA+, Cisco CCNA and Cisco CyberOps and AWS Cloud Practitioner
- The CTE coordinator of the Anaheim Union High School District (AUHSD) agreed to pay for all the AUHSD students’ industry exam vouchers as they complete the pathway program. This is estimated as $10,000 per year.
- Uptime Computing Service provided internship to two selected HS students for a duration of 12 weeks (24 sessions, 2 hrs./session via Zoom) in Fall 2020. The internship 24-session cycle was repeated in Spring and Summer to accommodate four additional HS students. Students learned the day-to-day activities of a Managed Service Provider including router configuration, vendor certification and customer service calls.
- IntelligInts provided a summer internship for 15 (8 College & 7 HS) students for five weeks (45 hrs.) during summer of 2021. Students worked in teams to set up and configure AWS virtual machines, storage, databases, and applications. They also used security tools and services to secure the virtual machines and related resources.
- Completed an externship report which included feedback from the industry expert to increase students’ employability and ways to bring field experience to the classroom environment
- Uptime Computing Service provided project-based learning in of the PACE courses (CIS 257, Cloud Implementation & Security) during Spring of 2022.
- 20 students (5 teams) participated in a 5-week workshop provided by a professional expert (Cybersecurity analyst). Students audited and remediated a live AWS environment using both AWS management console and AWS CLI. Teams identified and remediated non-compliant issues while identifying the risk in multiple presentations.
- Had a total of 41 meetings (over the 3 years) with the cohort of students and others involved in the digital badging process to evaluate the progress of each student and fine tune the digital badging process.
- Configured eKadence web platform for the digital badging process and trained the cohort of students to upload their competencies.
Last Modified: 03/10/2023
Modified by: Behzad Izadi
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