FREE! Adult Education Professional Development Opportunities for March 2026
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VALRC PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR
MARCH 2026
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The following free professional development opportunities are offered to Virginia adult education practitioners as well as adult education partner organizations. Stay up to date with all VALRC's offerings by checking the event calendar regularly.
Also, be sure to check out VALRC's publications:
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- PROGRESS: Virginia’s adult education and literacy news journal. Articles provide program managers, instructors, staff, practitioners, and the public-at-large with strong evidence-based articles that can help improve practice and promote transformation.
- SPOTLIGHT: An annual online publication that seeks to shine a light on adult education learners, their experiences, and their learning through the creative process.
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Using Technology to Enhance Reading Instruction PLC, Part 2
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In part 2, participants will come together to showcase their work and share strategies and tips for how they used and adapted lessons from SkillBlox. Participants will also learn how to create custom pages to build lesson sets to share with learners or other instructors.
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Career Pathways PLC #3: Career Coaching and Supporting Learners for What’s Next
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Session 3: Level-setting What We Mean by Career Coaching Effectiveness establishes what constitutes effective career coaching through Strada's three-element framework and California's seven promising practices. Centers adult learner voices through JFF's Virginia-specific research and introduces the student journey framework.
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This IET Office Hour will focus on IETs in Corrections and will feature a panel of adult education programs that have run IETs in correctional facilities. Come with questions!
(Next IET Office Hour April 1)
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Structured Literacy that Works: Practical Tools for Multilingual Learners
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Join this informational webinar to learn how ESL Word Nerds is transforming literacy instruction for English learners through structured literacy intentionally designed for multilingual students. Discover how our carefully crafted scope and sequence supports all four language domains while building vocabulary, grammar, and confidence. Participants will leave with practical, research-based, classroom-tested strategies and highly visual resources ready to use with newcomers and developing learners.
Presenter: Suzy Sylvester, co-creator of ESL Word Nerds, is a National Board Certified Teacher with 15 years of experience in special education and ESL, and she specializes in structured literacy for multilingual learners.
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Designing Programs with the New Assessments in Mind, Part 3
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Join adult educators from around the state to discuss the impact of new standardized assessments on program design and instruction. Focus will be on implementing CASAS Goals 2 and/or TABE 13/14.
You do not need to have attended earlier PLC offerings before attending this collaborative session.
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Refresher: LACES Data Analysis Session #2
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Join a group of Virginia practitioners for a hands-on experience working with data in the LACES system. This is a refresher session geared towards beginning users.
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Career Pathways PLC #4: Career Coaching and Supporting Learners for What’s Next
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Session 4: Career Pathways Mapping and Intervention Strategies focuses on practical application through career pathways mapping and selecting adult-appropriate interventions. Applies adult-specific intervention research and addresses virtual/online delivery models through the "20 Ways to Use Career Pathways Maps" strategies.
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Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in Practice,
Part 2
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UDL in Practice is a 3-part series that introduces adult educators to practical strategies for designing inclusive learning experiences. Part 2 will focus on the principle of representation and how presenting information in multiple ways—using visuals, audio, plain language, and real-world examples—supports diverse learning needs and improves access and comprehension for all learners.
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VALRC's On-Demand, Self-Paced Learning & Resource Collection
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Visit VALRC's Training and Resource Collections: Topics include reading instruction, universal design for learning, trauma-informed practice, multilingual learning (including ESOL instruction and multilevel instruction), civics instruction, and career pathways
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- Virginia's assessment policy (newly updated!)
- Working with adults with disabilities
- Science of reading
- English language instruction
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See this announcement with more information about registering for and accessing VALRC's on-demand and self-paced learning opportunities using the Reach 360 platform.
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"Equipping the field of adult education and literacy with essential skills and resources to expand access to high-quality instruction and workforce preparation."
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