The Neglected 15%: Positive Effects of Hybrid Human-AI Tutoring Among Students with Disabilities

Abstract

Incorporating human tutoring with AI holds promise for supporting diverse math learners. In the U.S., approximately 15% of students receive special education services, with limited previous research within AIED on the impact of AI-assisted learning among students with disabilities. Previous work combining human tutors and AI suggests that students with lower prior knowledge, such as lacking basic skills, exhibit greater learning gains compared to their more knowledgeable peers. Building upon this finding, we hypothesize that hybrid human-AI tutoring will have positive effects among students in inclusive settings, classrooms containing both students with and without identified disabilities. To investigate this hypothesis, we conduct a two-study quasi-experiment across two urban, low-income middle schools: one in Pennsylvania with 362 students and another in California comprised of 733 students, involving 27% and 16% of students with disabilities, respectively. Our findings indicate hybrid human-AI tutoring has positive effects on learning processes and outcomes among all students, including students with disabilities. The motivational benefits of the human tutoring treatment over a control group using solely math software show up in greater increases in practice and skill proficiency during math software use for students with disabilities than other students. In addition, the treatment yields significantly higher pre-to-post learning gains for all including students with disabilities whose relative gains trend higher and are statistically at least as high. These compelling findings support the promise of hybrid human-AI solutions and emphasize the collaborative focus among AIED to support diverse learners.