Educational reform in the United States is often focused on upgrading school curricula in response to evolution in science, technology, and society. Wyoming is no exception. A 2001 Wyoming Supreme Court decision granted constitutional protection to every K-12 student in the state for a "fair, complete, and equal education, appropriate for the times." Based on that decision, in 2015 Governor Matt Mead initiated an executive action to make computer science education available in every Wyoming school. Such a new mandate caught many Wyoming schools off guard in that their in-service teachers were required to obtain education and certification to provide computer science education. To support the state's schools, several of Wyoming's institutions of higher education began delivering professional development to teachers needing qualifications to teach modern computer science. The research presented in this dissertation focuses on describing, documenting, and evaluating the origin story and system processes utilized to bring this initiative to implementation. The study describes the experiences of an initial group of in-service teachers seeking to complete a K-12 computer science teaching endorsement program in rural Wyoming by focusing on three overarching research questions: How does systems theory provide a model to deeply understanding Wyoming's K-12 computer science education effort? What are the challenges of delivering multi-age computer science in the rural, mountain regions of the western U.S.? and What differences might exist between teachers' perceived needs for computer science based professional development before and after their actual classroom teaching experience? Using a combination of standard quantitative and qualitative methods, the results suggest that the process could be analyzed using systems theory and that substantive differences exist in the suitability of various programming languages for in service teachers compared with the needs of traditional computer science students. Moreover, the data reveal a discrepancy between the participants' expectations of their preparedness to teach computer science after completing the endorsement program (but before teaching) and after using the information gained in their professional development to actually teach computer science. At the same time, results suggest that teachers who are novice computer science teachers would perhaps benefit greatly from being trained on classroom-ready instructional materials more so than only having an enhanced understanding of fundamental computer science principles. Taken together, the results of this study create a foundation for other states developing similar initiatives to provide K-12 computer science in their own settings. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]