Development and Validation of an Expert System for Special Educators

Abstract

The authors describe the development and initial validation of a computer-based expert system, Mandate Consultant (Parry, 1985), designed to review the regulatory procedures for developing Individual Education Programs (IEP). The formative process involved three phases: (a) definition of need and proposed solution, (b) design of a prototype, and (c) progressive refinement through field-testing and revision cycles. The summative component included a two-phase experimental design for validating the accuracy of expert system output through comparisons with human experts. The findings indicated that the expert system-generated conclusions matched the conclusions of the “better” human experts, and were considered more appropriate than the conclusions of the majority of experts. Furthermore, “blinded” evaluators judged the expert system-generated conclusions as being equally acceptable as those produced by the “better” human experts, and more acceptable than those of the majority of experts.