Program Administration Scale (PAS): Measuring Whole Leadership in Early Childhood Centers, Third Edition

This title is in the Environment Rating Scale® Family of Products―the leading research-based tools to optimize the quality of children’s early learning.

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. In the third edition, the authors share updated information supporting the reliability and validity of the instrument and make key revisions based on the recognition of whole leadership as the guiding framework for the effective administration of early childhood centers. In addition, the PAS indicator language was reviewed from a racial equity and social justice perspective. This edition reflects feedback provided by practitioners from across the country who have used the PAS for program self-improvement, research, training, college instruction, accreditation facilitation, quality monitoring, mentoring, coaching, organizational consulting, and policymaking.

Using a 7-point rating scale (inadequate to excellent), this easy-to-use instrument assesses 25 items grouped into 9 categories: human resources, personnel cost and allocation, operations, screening and assessment, fiscal management, organizational growth and development, family and community partnerships, relational leadership, and staff qualifications.

Book Features:

• Measures whole leadership, recognizing the interdependent nature of administrative leadership, pedagogical leadership, and leadership essentials.
• Places a greater emphasis on administrative practices that support inclusion, equity, and cultural and linguistic diversity.
• Emphasizes leadership routines that provide opportunities for shared decision-making and distributed leadership among staff.
• Demonstrates a positive relationship between the quality of administrative practices and the quality of early childhood classroom environments.
• Responds to the workforce crisis with supports that promote teacher leadership, enhance career development, and protect time for reflection, planning, and peer learning.

Teri N. Talan is the Michael W. Louis Endowed Chair and Senior Policy Advisor at the McCormick Center for Early Childhood Leadership and a professor at the National Louis University. She has received the 2026 McCormick Institute for Early Childhood at National Louis University Leadership Connections Visionary Leader Award. Jill M. Bella of Bella Mattina provides consultation to local and state initiatives focused on leadership topics in early care and education. Paula Jorde Bloom (deceased) was the founder of the McCormick Center for Early Childhood Leadership and professor emerita at the National Louis University.