To address the growing demand for cybersecurity professionals, the National Security Agency (NSA) developed the Centers for Academic Excellence (CAE) to help university programs align curriculum and experiences with the needs of Department of Defense (DoD) agencies. To help students pursue degrees and careers in cybersecurity, Scholarships for Service opportunities like Cyber Corps and the DoD Cyber Service Academy were created. These opportunities help address some issues with the shortage of cybersecurity professionals but do not address critical areas, like developing trained cybersecurity educators.

Developing cybersecurity educators is a concern within K12 and higher education. These institutions struggle to find cybersecurity faculty as the demand for cybersecurity programs increases at two- and four-year colleges. As colleges and universities work to establish the pipeline between them and public and private employers, they struggle to recruit K12 students, who may not have the opportunity to take cybersecurity courses or consider a career in cybersecurity.

About 15% of U.S. public high schools have a cybersecurity course, meaning less than 4% of high school students have the opportunity to learn about cybersecurity, develop an interest, or understand the pathway to a cybersecurity career. As school administrators, school boards, parents, employers, and communities recognize the need for cybersecurity courses within K12 education, they face barriers to recruiting and retaining qualified cybersecurity teachers.

For many schools with cybersecurity programs, the teacher or program champion unintentionally creates a fragile environment, as the program depends on retaining them. Arizona's access to cybersecurity courses and the number of students who can take them are below the national findings, with only 10% of Arizona schools offering cybersecurity courses. The lack of Arizona cybersecurity course offerings means that 3% of Arizona students have access to a cybersecurity course, and less than 1% have access to a cybersecurity pathway.

Various initiatives from the U.S. Department of Education and Department of Defense agencies have provided professional development for K12 teachers focused on cybersecurity education. Many of these opportunities consisted of a few days or a week-long workshop. These opportunities help introduce cybersecurity education topics but do not provide the depth to prepare teachers to create or deliver content. To address professional development quality and develop highly qualified K12 cybersecurity teachers, a graduate certificate in cyber operations was created and marketed toward K12 teachers. To offset the cost of the certificate, funding was obtained in partnership with six other universities to provide 18 graduate credits for 175 accepted K12 teachers nationally.

This paper discusses the graduate certificate development, coursework, and course delivery. The inspiration and motivation for developing this certificate and marketing to K12 educators focused on offering opportunities to create highly qualified educators and provide opportunities for educators and students in cybersecurity. External funding was obtained to help increase the number of teachers qualified to teach cybersecurity and the number of cybersecurity courses within schools. The graduate certificate and scholarship funding will positively impact teachers, students, schools, and the pipeline to community colleges and universities.

Keywords: Cybersecurity Education, Graduate Certificate, Qualified Teachers, K12 Education.