Paper, Paper, Everywhere: Four Tips to Organize Your Documentation for an Assessment | McCormick Center for Early Childhood Leadership

Organizing documentation is an important part of an Administrative Rating Scale assessment. So, where do you begin? At first, organizing your paperwork can seem like a daunting task; however, the four tips below will help you get your papers in order and make the task more manageable. To show how these tips can be implemented, examples have been provided for each as they relate to the Program Administration Scale (PAS) for center-based child care and the Business Administration Scale for Family Child Care (BAS).

1. Use the Documents for Review Resource – The Documents for Review Resource is available to help you stay organized.

Example: The Documents for Review Resource for both the PAS and the BAS is organized by item. There is a page for each item that includes the indicators strands, and the theme of that strand, criteria needed to receive credit, and a list of possible types of documentation that might include the necessary information. The PAS Documents for Review Resource and the BAS Documents for Review Resource are available online. In addition, there is a short version of the BAS Documents for Review Resource in the BAS book on pages 30-31.

2. Create file folders – Label one file folder for each item. Place the file folders in a box in numerical order.

Example: If you were using the PAS book, you would have a file folder labeled Item 1: Staff Orientation, one labeled Item 2: Supervision and Performance Appraisal, and so on. For the BAS, your file folders would be labeled Item 1: Qualifications and Professional Development, Item 2: Income and Benefits, and so on.

3. Label, highlight, or flag documents – Put the item and indicator number on the document, highlight the text that applies to the indicator, or put a Post-It Note with the item and indicator number near the text that applies to the indicator, and place it in the corresponding file folder.

Example: For the PAS, if you have a copy of your budget, with line item breakdowns, you would put it in the file folder labeled, Item 12: Budget Planning, and label the document Item 12, 3.2 and 5.2, because it meets the documentation requirements for both of these indicators. For the BAS, you would put a copy of the budget in the file folder labeled Item 4: Fiscal Management, and label the document Item 4: 5.1.

4. Determine how to organize documentation that applies to several items – There is some documentation that might be needed as evidence for several items—such as an employee handbook or a parent handbook.

Example: Your employee handbook might include information about a new employee orientation needed for Item 1 in the PAS as well as information about employee benefits needed for Item 5 in the PAS. You don’t need to have a copy of the entire handbook in each item folder that requires a part of it for documentation. Simply copy and highlight the page from the handbook that documents what is needed for that item, label with the item and indicator number, and place it in the file folder. Have one original copy of the handbook available for assessors to use, if needed.

Having a place to put documents as you go through the scale books will help you feel less overwhelmed. Try to organize one item at a time, and before you know it, you’ll have a system in place and the task will be complete!

< Older Post

Newer Post >

Examining the Role of Employer Benefits and Turnover in Center-based Child Care

By Robyn Kelton, M.A. • June 27, 2025

INTRODUCTION Turnover rates in child care are among the highest in education, with over 160,000 workforce openings predicted annually (Bassok et al., 2014; Doromal et al., 2022; Joughin, 2021; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025). While some turnover is expected and even necessary, the levels of turnover experienced in the field of early childhood education and care (ECEC) are not only alarmingly high but deeply problematic. In 2021, a national survey conducted by the National Association for the Education of Young Children found that over 80% of child care centers were experiencing a staffing shortage, with the majority of those programs reporting one-to-five open roles, but 15% reporting between six and 15 open roles (NAEYC, 2021). Staffing shortages result in lost revenue, financial uncertainty, and program instability, often forcing administrators to operate below capacity and/or under reduced hours (NAEYC, 2021; NAEYC, 2024; Zero to Three, 2024). Limited enrollment slots and classroom and program closures lead to increased waiting lists (Zero to Three, 2024; Carrazana, 2023). In turn, families are placed in a highly vulnerable position of needing to leave the workforce to stay home with their child or turn to potentially unsafe or unregulated child care. Moreover, increased turnover in classrooms interrupts continuity of care and disrupts the relationships built between children and their educators (Reidt-Parker, J., & Chainski, M. J. (2015). Research has begun to highlight some of the programmatic and personnel characteristics predictive of increased staff turnover in ECEC programs. Low wages are most commonly identified as a strong predictor of turnover (Amadon et al., 2023; Bryant et al., 2023; Fee, 2024; Guevara, 2022; Totenhagen et al., 2016). However, workforce advocates and some researchers have begun to expand conversations on compensation to explore the impact the profession’s general lack of benefits such as paid time off, access to health insurance, and retirement benefits has on retention (e.g., Amadon et al., 2023; Bryant et al., 2023; Fee, 2024; Lucas, 2023). While informative, this body of work has typically approached benefits as binary variables (i.e., have or do not have) rather than reflect the spectrum on which benefits are commonly offered (e.g., the number of days off, the percent of insurance covered by the employer, and levels of retirement matching funds). This Research Note aims to expand on previous work investigating the relationship between benefits and turnover by exploring the possibility of a more nuanced relationship between the variables to determine if the level of benefits offered impacts turnover rates. METHOD This study used data collected via formal Program Administration Scale, 3rd Edition (PAS-3) assessments conducted by Certified PAS-3 Assessors between 2023 and 2025. To become certified, PAS-3 assessors must first achieve reliability (a score of at least 86%) on a test conducted after four days of training on the tool. Next, they must conduct two PAS assessments within three months of reliability training. PAS-3 national anchors reviewed the completed assessments for consistency, accuracy, and completeness. The study analyzed data from 133 PAS-3 assessments collected during the certification process across 12 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Mariana Islands. Measures Data for this study were collected using the PAS-3, a valid and reliable tool used to measure and improve Whole Leadership practices in center-based programs (Talan, Bella, Jorde Bloom, 2022). The PAS-3 includes 25 items, each composed of 2-5 indicator strands and scored on a 7-point Likert scale (1 = inadequate, 3 = minimal, 5 = good, and 7 = excellent). Item scores are averaged to determine a mean PAS-3 score. Of particular interest to this study is Item 5: Benefits. Item 5 measures employee access to health insurance and considers what percentage of the cost is paid by the employer, the total number of paid time off days within the first and fifth years of employment, access to a retirement plan, and the percentage at which the employer will match the employee’s contribution. Last, Item 5 explores provisions made to cover the costs of staff’s professional development. Non-applicable is allowed as a response for indicators related to health insurance and retirement if there are no full-time staff employed by the program. Sample Program enrollment ranged in size from four children to 285, with a mean enrollment of 65 and a median of 55. Total program staff for the sample ranged from two to 44 staff, with an average of just under 14 staff (13.93) and a standard deviation of 8.80. Table 1 below provides a detailed breakdown of staff by role and full-time and part-time status.