The National Science Foundation’s (NSF) CyberCorps® Scholarship for Service (SFS) program was developed to increase the number of cybersecurity professionals needed in support of government agencies. Through the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018, community colleges can be direct awardees of SFS funds. Historically, four-year institutions were the lead recipients of funds. The Community College Cybersecurity Pilot (C3P)program launched in 2019 to explore the effectiveness and feasibility of cybersecurity vocational training at two-year institutions across the U.S..
As one of the pilot’s primary external evaluators, TheRucks Group (TRG) developed and implemented a comprehensive utilization-focusedevaluation strategy. The evaluation plan support involved robust datacollection methods, data analysis and visualization, report writing anddissemination.
The size and scope of the project required extensive collaboration across multiple institutions to assess the impact of the pilot program over a three-year period. TRG formed strong connections and engaged in regular communications with evaluators from other pilots along with national evaluators at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). TRG developed a shared language used across the pilot to conceptualize common elements of the program. In addition, TRG partnered to create the SFS Toolkit to share best practices for future modeling at other institutions.
The National Science Foundation’s (NSF) CyberCorps® Scholarship for Service (SFS) program was developed to increase the number of cybersecurity professionals needed in support of government agencies. Through the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018, community colleges can be direct awardees of SFS funds. Historically, four-year institutions were the lead recipients of funds. The Community College Cybersecurity Pilot (C3P)program launched in 2019 to explore the effectiveness and feasibility of cybersecurity vocational training at two-year institutions across the U.S..
