One peer-reviewed foundation, and the evidence behind it.
When a parent asks how you know their child is ready for work, you need more than a hunch. PAES is peer reviewed at the instrument level. The assessment itself has been tested for reliability, so the scores you bring to family meetings, placement decisions, and state audits hold up.
The distinction that matters
Many programs in this space point to gains after an intervention. That measures the program, not the measurement.
What others measure
Program-level gains
Students improved after our intervention. That is a claim about the program, not the measurement. It says nothing about whether the assessment itself is reliable, consistent, or measuring what it claims to measure.
What PAES validates
Instrument-level reliability
The scoring system has been examined by academic reviewers. Reliability and predictive value have been tested. The data is consistent, transferable, and holds up across settings and over time.
When an administrator or a parent asks how you know, the reliability of the measurement matters as much as any reported gain.
The research behind the scores
The 2026 customer impact survey
In early 2026, we surveyed 307 PAES educators across the US, UK, Canada, and Northern Mariana Islands. Every headline below is verified and sourced.
82%
rate PAES positive overall
81%
say PAES reveals strengths traditional assessment misses
74%
trust PAES data for high-stakes decisions
86%
report students show increased transition readiness
75%
say PAES reduces subjectivity in decisions about students
0.3- 0.7
points higher on impact items at recently trained sites vs untrained sites
53%
Only 53% reported improved student attendance, the lowest score in the survey. We name it rather than hide it.
For academics and research partners
If you are evaluating PAES for a research study, doctoral thesis, or meta-analysis, see the detailed research page for the full evidence story. Where ethics approval permits and we have capacity, we can share published papers, connect you with active PAES sites, and support academic acknowledgment.