Our story
PAES started with one teacher, Dr. Judith Swisher, who wanted to see what her students could do, not what they couldn't. She built a working lab in her classroom, and it grew. Today more than 2,100 PAES Labs run in over 40 states, backed by peer-reviewed research and 35+ years of classroom use.
The beginning
PAES started in a Kansas classroom in the late 1980s. Dr. Judith Swisher was a transition teacher. The standardized vocational assessments she was expected to use told her what her students couldn't do, in a format that had nothing to do with real work. She couldn't see the students she taught in the numbers the tests produced.
So she built something different. A lab. A set of structured tasks based on actual workplaces. An observation system that captured what students could do when they were doing the work itself.
"We never really know what a student can do until we give them a chance to try."
The validation
In 1998, Judy's doctoral dissertation at the University of Kansas formally validated the PAES lab. That dissertation was the academic anchor for everything that followed. In 1998, the PAES assessment was peer-reviewed in Educational Assessment, placing it in a rare category: a vocational assessment with instrument-level academic validation, not just program-outcome claims.
Where we are now
Today PAES is a hands-on career assessment lab used in schools across the country. Students work real jobs at real stations. Educators observe and score, and the report becomes evidence a teacher can stand behind in a transition planning meeting. Around that core we've built:
We do one thing: hands-on, performance-based career assessment for students and adults with diverse needs. We have spent more than 35 years getting it right.
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A digital scoring platform (the PAES Scan Lab Management System)
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Supervisor training and certification
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A regional rep network across US states
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An international delivery model, starting with the UK
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An ongoing research and evidence generation program
A family, and a growing team
PAES today is a Swisher family business that has matured into an established assessment company. Around the founding family is a growing team of trainers, sales coordinators, training specialists, and certified regional representatives across the US, with international partners in the UK, Canada, and Northern Mariana Islands.
Rebekkah Swisher
Co-founder & President
Rebekkah grew up with PAES in her mother's classroom. She collated the first manuals in the family basement and now leads the PAES Scan Lab Management System, supervisor training, and international partnerships. She oversees the PAES methodology, IP, and implementation playbook.