Maine DOE Launches Statewide Professional Learning Days to Expand Equity and Support Capacity

In an effort to better support Maine educators, the Maine Department of Education (DOE) Office of Teaching and Learning and Office of Innovation are launching a new statewide professional learning structure for the 2025-2026 school year. By coordinating statewide learning days and offering support where it’s most needed, the Maine DOE hopes to empower school administrative units (SAUs), lighten local workloads, and help all Maine educators to feel more connected, supported, and equipped to meet the needs of their students.

As part of this offering, there will be three full days of free professional development workshops across the 2025-2026 school year. These sessions are intentionally aligned with the professional learning days already built into many school calendars, providing an easy way for SAUs and schools to incorporate these opportunities into their existing plans.

All workshops will be held in-person at three University of Maine System campuses—the University of Maine at Orono, the University of Maine at Farmington, and the University of Southern Maine—and will also be offered live online through a hybrid format. To ensure maximum flexibility, sessions will be recorded and available asynchronously. Contact hours will be awarded for participation in sessions.

Key benefits of this structure include:

• Equity of Access: Educators across all regions and school types can access consistent, high-quality professional development, regardless of geography or resources.
• Improved Efficiency: The Maine DOE-developed sessions reduce planning burdens on individual SAUs, while providing timely, relevant content aligned with statewide priorities.
• Coherence and Quality: Topics are directly connected to Maine Learning Results and shaped by feedback from Maine educators.

Workshop offerings span a wide range of educator needs, including Wabanaki Studies, STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics), literacy, Universal Design for Learning, Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS), numeracy, inclusive family engagement, and more. All sessions are grounded in research and designed to deliver practical, classroom-ready tools for educators, from pre-K through grade 12.

The full schedule and session descriptions are now available here. Registration details will be released soon. For more information, please contact Beth Lambert, Maine DOE Chief Teaching and Learning Officer, at beth.lambert@maine.gov.