For additional listings, check out the Event Listings and click on "Program Support" or any of our priority areas any time.
PSPD offers individual and program-based coaching for staff in any role looking to grow and strengthen their practice in any of our key priority areas, which include educational leadership and program management, advising, career pathways, digital literacy, and ADA coordination. We also offer individual coaching and support for those looking to acquire a professional ABE license. If interested, please submit a Contact Us request.
All PD offerings are online and facilitated unless indicated otherwise.
Professional Development: “On-Demand” When Your Schedule Allows! (Self-Paced Modules)
Different times work best for busy adult educators to attend PD. Did you know you can access PD when it’s most convenient for you? Visit our online asynchronous courses, including series that focus on Digital Literacy and Advising. You can find these courses on the Program Support's On-Demand PD Google Site, which offers more than 30 sessions organized according to seven strands.
Advising & Student Support Services
The Advisors Sharing Group is a peer-facilitated space for advisors to provide program updates, discuss and troubleshoot common challenges, and share resources, promising practices, and more.
- Feb. 26, 2026 | 5 - 6:30 p.m.
Career Pathways
Workplace Education Sharing Group
The Workplace Education (WPE) Sharing Group is a peer-facilitated opportunity for staff from WPE programs to network, share resources and strategies, ask questions, and learn from and with one another.
- Feb. 24, 2026 | 1 - 2:30 p.m.
Support Staff Sharing Groups are peer-facilitated meetings where support staff provide program updates, discuss and troubleshoot common challenges, and share resources, promising practices, and more. This group is open to anyone who works in an adult education program and provides support staff services. This event has only three available seats remaining.
- Feb. 26, 2026 | 1 - 2:30 p.m.
MassSTEP Sharing Group meetings provide an opportunity for anyone working on a MassSTEP program to connect with their peers and brainstorm solutions to common challenges together.
- Mar. 11, 2026 | 1 - 2:30 p.m.
Digital Literacy
Embedding Culturally Responsive Practices with Newsela (Self-Paced Modules)
This self-paced course helps you use Newsela to connect diverse adult learners' lives to classroom materials, boost their engagement, and improve their comprehension.
- Jan. 19, 2026 | Modules open at 9 a.m.
- June 15, 2026 | Course closes at 11:59 p.m.
EdTech Routines: A Strategy for Building Digital Skills with Any Content (Online Blended)
Looking to make technology use a habit in your classroom? Make it a routine! EdTech routines are replicable digital activities that can be leveraged regularly regardless of context or content. Designing and integrating EdTech routines can build on your existing best practices and help your learners develop digital resilience. Join our four-part series to explore new digital tools, identify evidence-based strategies, and design two EdTech routines that can be a regular part of your instructional practice.
- Feb. 27, 2026 | Course opens at 9 a.m. for independent activities
- Mar. 6, 2026 | 2 - 3:30 p.m.
- Mar. 20, 2026 | 2 - 3:30 p.m.
- Apr. 3, 2026 | 2 - 3:30 p.m.
- Apr. 17, 2026 | 2 - 3:30 p.m.
EdTech in Action: Assessment with Google Forms (Online Blended)
EdTech in Action sessions are your chance to explore and engage with educational technology—the ideas, tools, and techniques that use digital technology to facilitate changes in knowledge, skills, or attitudes. Each session introduces a new EdTech tool and presents two replicable EdTech routines that you can adapt for your classroom or for administrative use to build students' digital skills. In this third session, you will learn about using Google Forms as an assessment tool—not just for the classroom, but for program intake as well.
- Mar. 2, 2026 | Course opens at 9 a.m. for independent activities
- Mar. 12, 2026 | 1 - 2:30 p.m.
BurlingtonEnglish: Teacher Sharing and Learning Panel
Do you use BurlingtonEnglish and would love some creative ideas from others who use it? Have you thought about BurlingtonEnglish but aren’t quite sure what it’s all about? If you have these questions or others, please join us for this open and interactive session where you will have the opportunity to ask questions to a panel of three Massachusetts ESOL instructors who have been successful in using BurlingtonEnglish. The panelists will share their experience teaching with the platform and offer guidance about the effective instructional strategies they have used with their learners.
- Mar. 6, 2026 | 10 - 11:30 a.m.
Educational Leadership & Program Management
Directors must balance complex staff and student needs, local policies and protocols, and state guidance as they design, lead, and adapt programs, instructional practices, and program culture. The Directors Sharing Group is a peer-facilitated opportunity for directors to network, share resources and strategies, ask questions, and learn from and with one another.
- Feb. 25, 2026 | 2 - 3:30 p.m.
LACES
This two-part training is an overview of how to use LACES (the statewide data management information system, or MIS) for your student, class, and staff data.
- Mar. 10, 2026 | 2 - 4 p.m.
- Mar. 11, 2026 | 2 - 4 p.m.
Collaboration Events
Introduction to Teaching Skills That Matter (Self-Paced Modules)
This introduction to the Teaching Skills That Matter in Adult Education provides an overview of the TSTM instructional framework and the TSTM Toolkit. The introduction also provides materials and guidance to train teachers to incorporate the skills that matter into adult education programming by using instructional approaches that work across relevant topic focus areas that are connected to student needs. Using the TSTM project’s tools and training, adult education teachers can teach the transferable skills students need in these critical contexts.
- Mar. 2, 2026 | Modules open at 9 a.m.
- Apr. 17, 2026 | Course closes at 11:59 p.m.
Inspiring Career Development and Action: Strategies for Teachers and Advisors (Online Blended)
Massachusetts adult education programs are required to provide students with career exploration and planning content while simultaneously building academic skills, though they often need support to do so. Providing standards-based, career-contextualized instruction is a win-win for teachers, advisors, and students, as it maximizes the instructional time students have in the classroom. The Inspiring Career Development and Action series is for teachers and advisors whose goals include supporting learners in pursuing educational and career opportunities while achieving academic goals.
- Mar. 2, 2026 | Course opens at 9 a.m. for independent activities
- Mar. 4, 2026 | 10 - 12 p.m.
- Mar. 18, 2026 | 10 - 12 p.m.
