Within the next decade, analysts expect space to become a $1 trillion industry. But without a skilled workforce, this vision for the space economy will never become a reality. Similarly, cybersecurity work is vital to U.S. security and prosperity, yet hundreds of thousands of cybersecurity jobs remain unfilled. Addressing these talent gaps will require identifying and developing pathways from America’s middle and high schools to postsecondary education and careers.

Career and technical education (CTE) programs in high schools and middle schools can play a big part in introducing students to pathways and helping them build skills for high-demand careers. Middle school is an ideal time for students to begin exploring their interests, but CTE programming is nascent in middle grades, compared with more established high school programs. And even at schools with middle school CTE programs, teachers may not have access to the requisite support, expertise, and curricula to teach cybersecurity-related and space-related content in their classrooms.

The U.S. Department of Education has been collaborating with other federal agencies, including the NCAE-C Program Office, housed at the National Security Agency (NSA), to increase student access to cybersecurity and space careers — and expanding the capacity of teachers is one way to meet that goal. On behalf of the Department, Luminary Labs designed and produced the Middle Grades CTE Accelerator, a professional development program to advance middle grades career and technical education.

We began by building off the successful foundations of CTE CyberNet, a national cybersecurity teacher professional development initiative focused on high schools, and conducted an ecosystem analysis to understand how that program might best extend and adapt to middle schools. Like CTE CyberNet, the Middle Grades CTE Accelerator would consist of two components: a summer intensive, in which participants receive training and resources to develop relevant CTE programming, and ongoing professional development throughout the academic year to help them implement and refine their programming.

To identify sites, we sought local champions of space and cybersecurity education across the country, starting with a network of centers of academic excellence for cybersecurity and space-grant consortia. Eight inaugural sites — six focused on cybersecurity and two focused on space — agreed to develop customized programming for summer intensives and ongoing professional development that would be relevant for their respective communities.

Luminary Labs and the Department provided clear objectives and structures, and also designed and organized an initial convening for each site that brought together relevant stakeholders — including school administrators, counselors, teachers, education agencies, workforce development organizations, employers, and other experts — and enhanced ecosystem development. After that, site leads had the flexibility to design and manage their programs based on local needs. In Norfolk, Virginia, that meant bringing participating teachers together for a two-week, in-person summer intensive; in Tucson, Arizona, it meant developing a summer intensive that included a combination of self-guided activities, virtual meetings, and in-person activities. Several site leads from CTE CyberNet were also site leads for the Middle Grades CTE Accelerator, bringing expertise and continuity to the new program.

Hands-on and practical activities during the summer intensive facilitated implementation in the classroom. Sites provided teachers with access to resources and support that included lesson plans, opportunities to test lessons with peers, lesson plan modeling, and time to co-design their own lessons. Sites also invited industry and subject matter experts as speakers, which helped teachers see how they could incorporate relevant resources and activities into their classrooms.

Across all eight sites, participating teachers engaged with each other and with site leads, as well as with mentor teachers who had participated in CTE CyberNet; this vertically integrated peer-to-peer mentorship connected middle school, high school, and higher education, strengthening academic and career pathways for students.

To measure the Accelerator’s impact, Luminary Labs conducted pre- and post-accelerator participant surveys, interviews with site leads and participants, and classroom observations. More than nine in 10 participating teachers (93%) felt satisfied or highly satisfied with the Accelerator programming. At the end of the Accelerator, more than 80% of teachers felt they had the skills and knowledge to teach cybersecurity or space content; a substantial increase from before the Accelerator, when only 30% of teachers said the same thing.

In just one year, eight accelerator sites served 75 teachers, who collectively serve approximately 4,700 students. In many ways, the work is just beginning: Teachers say they will continue to deliver and build on this new material in their classrooms next year.

The Middle Grades CTE Accelerator has also sparked a national conversation among educators: The program was featured in sessions at several education conferences, including the 2023 NICE K12 Cybersecurity Education Conference, the 2024 Space Exploration Educators Conference, and SXSW EDU 2024.