PAES Productions is the assessment technology company behind the PAES Lab and the PAES assessment instrument. Founded by Dr. Judith Swisher in 1989. Peer-reviewed at the instrument level. Established across the United States, with a live contract in the UK and active customers in Canada and Guam.
The beginning
PAES started in a Kansas classroom in the late 1980s. Dr. Judith Swisher was a transition teacher. The standardised 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.
Judy's guiding philosophy became the PAES philosophy: "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 1999, the PAES assessment was peer-reviewed in Educational Measurement, placing it in a rare category: a vocational assessment with instrument-level academic validation, not just program-outcome claims.
The research heritage did not stop there. Content validity and predictive validity have both been peer-reviewed in the years since. For the depth, see Research Heritage.
From the archive
A family, and a growing team
PAES today is a Swisher family business that has matured into an established assessment company.
- Dr. Judith Swisher is Author, Founder, and President.
- Rebekkah Swisher, Judy's daughter, is Co-founder and President. Rebekkah grew up with PAES in her mother's classroom, collated the first manuals in the family basement, and now leads the PAES Scan App and supervisor training.
- Ian Swisher, Judy's son, is CEO.
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 Guam.
Where we are now
PAES Productions is an assessment technology company that develops validated, performance-based systems for measuring real-world capability. The core product is the PAES Lab and the PAES instrument, built to produce defensible data for high-stakes educational and transition decisions. Around the core we've built:
- A digital scoring platform (the PAES Scan App)
- Supervisor training and certification
- A regional rep network across US states
- An international delivery model, starting with the UK
- An ongoing research and evidence generation program
We do one thing, and we intend to be the best in the world at it: authentic, performance-based vocational assessment for students and adults with diverse needs.
Where we're going
As AI reshapes how knowledge and ability are demonstrated, PAES is positioned as infrastructure for authentic assessment in an AI era. District leaders are asking harder questions about evidence quality, defensibility, and real-world validity. That is PAES territory.
Our strategic direction: remain the category leader in authentic, performance-based assessment. That means investing in the assessment (continuous validation, including an outcome study underway in 2026), investing in the delivery (digital tooling, PAES Scan evolution), and investing in reach (international markets, CTE and workforce adjacencies).
Corporate soundbites:
- "Infrastructure for authentic assessment in an AI era."
- "A validated platform for measuring real-world capability."
- "Defensible performance data for transition and workforce decisions."
Our values
- Evidence first. If it's not validated, we don't say it.
- Strengths first. Students are more than their deficits. Our assessment reflects that.
- Supervisors first. The people in the classroom know what works. We build with them, not for them.
- Plain language. No jargon. No marketing slop. If we can't explain it, we don't ship it.