Individualized educational programs (IEPs) written either by hand or by use of the "IEP Writer'" a specially designed word processing program, were compared. Results indicated that IEPs which were written using the program took less time and were of higher quality than were handwritten IEPs. (Author/DB)

Twelve special education teachers in rural Kentucky were trained to use a computer software program to create individualized education programs (IEPs). After 18 months, teachers' initially positive attitudes toward IEP generators had deteriorated; teachers cited problems such as hardware malfunctions and time constraints. (Author/SV)

The purpose of this research project was the development and initial validation of Mandate Consultant, an expert system that provides a second opinion of the appropriateness of the decision-making process used in the development of Individualized Education Programs with handicapped children. (Expert systems are a development of artificial…

Mandate Consultant is an expert system that assists in special education file review, to determine compliance with state and federal regulations regarding Individualized Education Program development. In this validation study, a secretary using Mandate Consultant produced reports 5 times more accurate and 20 times less expensive than reports…

The research project investigated whether expert system tools have become sophisticated enough to be applied efficiently to problems in special education. (Expert systems are a development of artificial intelligence that combines the computer's capacity for storing specialized knowledge with a general set of rules intended to replicate the…