Exceptional Standards
Chae O’Keefe - August 6, 2026
Dev time: 3 weeks Completed: 9/28/26
Build and test a teacher-led, AI-assisted prototype that generates differentiated addition word problems for special education teachers. The goal is to preserve the academic standard while adjusting the access point (reading level and topic/interest) so students can engage with the same skill.
Teachers stay in control: the AI produces draft problems and teachers review.
The start of the school year creates a narrow window to validate whether this workflow is valuable enough to adopt.
Exceptional Education can win against tools like Diffit, MagicSchool AI, and IXL by tailoring both the output and the authoring experience to special education teachers—especially around differentiation that keeps the goal intact while adjusting access.
Ship a small prototype and run a short pilot to validate (1) usability for teachers and (2) perceived value vs. existing tools and manual creation.
The academic school year is beginning, which is when teachers are actively building materials and are most likely to try a new workflow.
Our AI agent is tuned to special education teachers (not generic lesson creation). The product is designed around engagement—connecting problems to student interests and making progress feel rewarding—while keeping standards-aligned goals.
Early feedback emphasized student engagement and rewards systems. This prototype tests whether differentiated word problems alone are compelling enough to adopt while engagement-focused features are still in development.
Measure usage through completed exports (downloads/prints) and the amount of AI assistance required to reach an exportable final (agent calls per exported document).