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Welcome back! We hope you are ready for another great year! We are excited to share more about Early College Credit in Cybersecurity (E3C), the workshop we held for that initiative, and the executive summary about E3C. We also have exciting updates on the ARC Project, and a Surfwisely pilot opportunity for you, read on!
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Early College Credit in Cybersecurity (E3C)
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The Need
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Our nation has a high need for college education in cybersecurity in a market with a relatively low college enrollment. The field of cybersecurity must carefully consider how to increase college enrollment and graduation. Early College Credit in Cybersecurity (E3C) is one approach to aid this increase.
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Why is Early College Credit (ECC) Important?
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- It provides students with opportunities to get a jump start.
- It builds the pipelines from high school to college and/or career.
- ECC aims to do the above for all students.
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Here are a few quick facts about the growth of Early College Credit in the U.S.
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- Compared in 2010, today 29% more U.S. high schools offer ECC and 9% more students are taking ECC.
- In 2023, 34.7% high school students took at least one AP exam and 21.7% earned a score of 3 or higher. This is an increase from ten years ago when 31.5% of the class of 2013 took an AP Exam with 19.1% earning a score of 3 or higher on at least one AP exam.
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Cybersecurity is a new field giving high schools the opportunity to build rigorous cybersecurity courses that could count for college cybersecurity credit (E3C).
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E3C Pioneering Efforts
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In 2024 Teach Cyber conducted a study of E3C in the U.S. We highlight 9 examples of early college cybersecurity credit. You can read about these 9 example here: https://teachcyber.org/e3c/.
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Is Your School Interested in E3C?
If so, here are a few quick facts to help you.
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- 446 U.S. colleges and universities have cybersecurity programs. These institutions are Centers of Academic Excellence (CAE) - you can find a list of them here: https://www.caecommunity.org/cae-map.
- 60% of them have introductory cybersecurity courses that could be used for E3C.
- Of the introductory courses we found, there are two primary “flavors”: 1) holistic introduction to cybersecurity, and 2) network security. A few schools also have digital forensics.
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Teachers:
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Which “flavor” of cybersecurity do I offer? (Network Security, Holistic Cybersecurity, or Digital Forensics/Other)
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Does my state require additional teacher training in order for me to offer early college credit? If so, stay tuned for the next NCTA cohort, learn more here.
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What institutions can I partner with?
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Of the Models of Early College Cybersecurity Credit listed here, is there a program I can model?
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Administrators:
How will offering E3C benefit the student body?
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How will offering E3C build community partnerships and collaboration?
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How will we build a robust E3C program? You can look at the "Criteria for Recognition" chart in the 2020 NCAE-C High School Designation Feasibility Study found here.
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How will offering an E3C program serve students who are underserved or underrepresented in CS fields?
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Policymakers:
What are the implications for offering E3C without national cybersecurity standards? You can look at the High School Cybersecurity Curriculum Guideline (HSCCG) here. This framework was developed to help guide what should be included in a holistic, early college credit cybersecurity course.
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What policies are barriers to teachers/schools/students to implementing a E3C program?
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What policies are catalysts for stakeholders to not only build and implement an E3C program but also sustain it?
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You can read the full E3C report here.
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If you have questions or are already offering E3C and would like to have your course featured, contact: Dr. Melissa Dark, melissa.dark@darkenterprisesinc.com.
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ARC-Assessment Resources for Cybersecurity - AVAILABLE
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Our team in partnership with cybersecurity researchers, educators and assessment experts, is creating cybersecurity assessment guides and cybersecurity assessment items. In AY 2024-25, we will publish an assessment guide and assessment items for three areas: Ubiquitous Connectivity (Network Security), Data Security, and Adversarial Thinking.
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Via this newsletter, we are pleased to let you know that Ubiquitous Connectivity is now available for your use. Download it here.
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- outlines the domain
- includes learning outcomes, focal knowledge statements, and assessment prompts
- can be used by educators and educational researchers to develop valid assessment items.
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- The itembank is restricted to Teach Cyber subscribers.
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Teach Cyber Lab Update- Email Harvesting Lab
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The Metasploit email harvesting lab has been updated to use a newer program called "Emailharvester". The syntax in the lab is almost identical to its original, "theHarvester" however it is less involved than using msfconsole. We hope you download and use the updated version of the Email Harvesting lab in your course this school year! You can check it out on our Lessons and Labs page at teachcyber.org.
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Cybersecurity Educators: Pilot Teachers and Feedback Wanted
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To address the critical need for digital literacy and safety for teenage students, Surfwisely is looking to partner with educators.
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Leveraging technology and gamification, SurfWisely addresses a critical gap in digital citizenship and media literacy curricula by focusing on cybersecurity awareness delivered through the highly relevant lens of sports! For a limited time Surfwisely is offering FREE pilot opportunities and discount district pricing for educators. Grant funding is also available. To learn more go to SurfWisely (https://surfwisely.com/), or contact mgrover@surfwisely.com.
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