Comprehensive Cybersecurity Programs: Case-Study Analysis of a Four-Year Cybersecurity Program at a Secondary Education Institution in Arizona

Educating the next generation of cybersecurity professionals requires a shift into the K-12 space. Introducing cybersecurity at K-12 provides general cybersecurity literacy, career readiness, and early development of cybersecurity knowledge, skills, and abilities to become cybersecurity professionals. Cybersecurity education standards and guidelines traditionally focused on post-secondary education until 2021 when Cyber.org and TeachCyber released their K-12 Cybersecurity Learning Standards and the High School Cybersecurity Curriculum Guidelines respectively. Despite these initiatives, there is limited literature on the development of cybersecurity programs at secondary education institutions. Also, available resources to develop and support these programs differ from district to district and among states. To overcome these deficits, this paper presents a case study conducted at a comprehensive four-year cybersecurity program at a secondary education institution. The case study consisted of open-source research, document reviews, questionnaires, and interviews. The data collected were compiled into a program profile consisting of student enrollment; demographics; personnel; operational requirements; formal, informal, and non-formal learning activities; and pathway opportunities. The developed program profile provides a structure to analyze other programs internal or external to Arizona. The enhanced data set can provide the ability to compare programs to develop best practices for establishing cybersecurity education programs at secondary education institutions. This profile can allow schools considering the development of a program at their institutions to better understand the requirements and resources needed to establish the program. Additionally, the data collected provides a baseline to compare their district and school to understand the implications within the context of their environment.