Program Administration Scale (PAS)

Research has consistently found that effective administrative practices are crucial for ensuring beneficial program outcomes for children and families. The Program Administration Scale (PAS) is designed to reliably measure and improve the leadership and management practices of center-based programs—the only instrument of its kind to focus exclusively on organization-wide administrative issues.

Using a 7-point rating scale (inadequate to excellent), this easy-to-use instrument assesses 25 items grouped into 10 categories: human resources development, personnel cost and allocation, center operations, child assessment, fiscal management, program planning and evaluation, family partnerships, marketing and public relations, technology, and staff qualifications.

This second edition of the PAS includes minor refinements to support the reliable use of the instrument and to reflect current best practices in early childhood administration.

• The Notes and Guiding Questions for the PAS items are expanded to increase understanding and facilitate greater consistency in scoring.
• Emphasis is placed on administrative practices that support family partnership, inclusion, cultural sensitivity, and linguistic diversity.
• Routines that demonstrate distributed leadership are measured.
• The focus in technology is on practices that promote effective communication, collaboration, and continuous learning.

Teri N. Talan is the Director of Research and Public Policy for the McCormick Center for Early Childhood Leadership and Associate Professor of Early Childhood Education at National Louis University. Paula Jorde Bloom is the Michael W. Louis Chair of the McCormick Center for Early Childhood Leadership and Professor of Early Childhood Education at National Louis University.

Praise for the PAS—

“Applause! The authors have done a great job of creating an objective instrument based on concrete criteria.”
—Gwen Morgan, Senior Fellow for Child Care Policy, Wheelock College

“What a wonderful tool for discovering strengths as well as providing the pathway for improvement!”
—Kay Albrecht, Senior Partner, Innovations in Early Childhood Education

“The PAS is an outstanding coaching tool for our state administrator credential. Our administrators now have a common language and shared focus for program improvement. The PAS helps directors become systems thinkers. This is the missing piece to increasing quality!”
—Diana Courson, Associate Director, Arkansas State University Childhood Services

“I found the PAS to be very comprehensive and useful in alerting me to documentation and other areas of administration that I needed to change. It is a good precursor tool to NAEYC Accreditation.”
—Linda Jo Platt, Director, Community Nursery School

“Measuring quality on a 7-point scale provides for tiny steps that should encourage people to keep improving. I love this tool.”
—Bee Jay Ciszek, Principal, Cardinal Bernardin Early Childhood Center