AI: Transparency in Special Education

Foundation 4: Promote Transparency

As school districts explore using artificial intelligence (AI) to personalize instruction, streamline processes, and enhance support for students with disabilities, parents should be asking questions about transparency: How do different AI models work? How has their effectiveness been tested and proven? How is AI used in my child’s education? How has AI been used in the drafting of my child’s IEP?

Every AI application is built using mathematical models and algorithms that detect patterns in data. The AI model uses this to automate decisions and recommendations. Sound familiar? IEPs are developed after understanding patterns of strengths and needs in your child’s comprehensive evaluation. 

But AI models are approximations of reality, based on the data they were trained on.  

How precise and accurate are the models? Do they understand the most important elements in a student's learning needs and progress? Do the AI's recommendations align with annual goals for students' growth?

Why Transparency Matters

When decisions impacting students get handed over to AI, it can be difficult to understand how the technology arrived at its outputs. Were there flawed assumptions or biases in the algorithms? Is the AI missing context about the realities of a classroom or a student's circumstances? Does the AI understand the difference between, say, executive functioning deficits resulting from ADHD and those resulting from trauma?

This lack of transparency poses risks - from perpetuating unfair disparities if the AI exhibits racial or disability bias, to recommending misguided IEP input. This could harm your child.

For parents of students with disabilities who have carefully advocated to get an appropriate IEP in place, having AI make recommendations that could alter their child's education is unacceptable. Full transparency includes accountability and alignment with each student's needs.

Advocacy Unlocked's "AI in Special Education" Course

This need for transparency is discussed more fully in Advocacy Unlocked's online course, "AI in Special Education". The course dives into what questions parents should be asking about AI and their child’s individualized education program.  

In addition to the course content, Advocacy Unlocked will be hosting live Q&A sessions to allow parents to ask specific questions about AI in special education.

Advocacy Unlocked's mission is empowering parents through education. In this era of AI and student learning, protecting student rights and ensuring individualized educational programs requires parents to expand their advocacy from the IEP meeting to the AI algorithm.

Source:

This blog post was inspired by The U.S. Department of Education Office of Educational Technology’s policy report, Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Teaching and Learning. Every parent of a child with special needs should read it!