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Allen Kay

Allen Kay, marketing consultant to TeachersCount
Allen is CEO of Korey Kay & Partners advertising and one of the most awarded Creative Directors in advertising. The agency gained its reputation by putting companies on the map. Virgin Atlantic Airways, Comedy Central and Celebrity Cruises are among them. Allen is a Graduate Board Member of the AdCouncil and AAAA (American Association of Advertising Agencies), where, when Chairman of their New York Board of Governors, he created the annual "Unthinkable Ideas" new media conference. Allen was a founding member of America's Promise—Colin Powell's alliance for youth, spent eleven years on the steering committee of ABNY (Association for a Better New York), is a Director of YES, Inc. (Youth Education through Sports), and is a member of the Advisory Board of PENCIL, an organization that works to improve New York City's public schools. Allen also served for many years as a consultant to the Marketing Board of the New York Philharmonic. The "Write Your Own Ticket" program was one of his many contributions.

No Child Left Behind

As the nation prepared for President-elect Barack Obama to take the reigns from George W. Bush, one of the main questions was what would become of No Child Left Behind. The law's effectiveness has often been questioned, as well as whether to keep it as is, reform it, or abolish it in favor of a new initiative. In an online poll that took place from December, 2008 through February, 2009, visitors to TeachersCount.org were asked to offer their opinions on how the nation's incoming administration should handle No Child Left Behind

A total of 139 respondents, 119 of whom described themselves as educators, participated in the poll. Participants chose among the following possible responses:

  • No Child Left Behind has been effective at creating an air of accountability and should continue with few to no reforms.
  • No Child Left Behind is structurally sound as written, but should be renewed only if fully funded.
  • No Child Left Behind is too flawed to be fixed, and ought to be scrapped in favor of a new national plan.

The majority of respondents, 78.4%, felt that No Child Left Behind is too flawed to be fixed, and ought to be scrapped in favor of a new national plan. 18.7% of respondents said No Child Left Behind is structurally sound as written, but should be renewed only if fully funded and 2.9% of respondents said that No Child Left Behind has been effective at creating an air of accountability and should continue with few to no reforms.

While in agreement overall, educators and non-educators differed slightly in the skew of their responses. Many more educators, 119, than non-educators, 20, responded. Amongst non-educators, most of them (75.0%) felt No Child Left Behind ought to be scrapped. 79.0% of all educators felt the same way, which is similarly dominant. A higher percentage of non-educators, 25.0%, than educators, 17.6%, thought No Child left behind should only be renewed if fully funded. 3.4% of educators and 0% of non-educators thought No Child Left Behind needed few to no reforms.

The poll invited respondents to comment, and many of them did. Below is a sampling of comments arranged by response.

“No Child Left Behind is too flawed to be fixed, and ought to be scrapped in favor of a new national plan.” – 78.4%
  • “I've been out of high school for about four years. When I think about the things I want to do to the school system, I think back to what I saw when I was there. I was normally an A/B student, yet I had alot of diffuculty passing each grade because of the standardized tests. I do feel that students should take them, but I feel that they carry too much weight. It should not be a pass of fail thing. Teachers stopped teaching to teach and instead just taught the test. If you dont have a certain percentage pass then you are not funded? That shouldn't be. I spent all of high school learning tests instead of learning real knowledge. ”
  • “Education is about promoting and maintaining a healthy and productive future for our nation and world. NCLB has reduced our vision to moments of achievement in order to procure dollars rather than lifting our collective sights to the future. Sadly, this is costly in terms of talent loss of students and teachers. This downward spiral needs to be reversed immediately. I want to retire knowing that the students I educate will be able to step up to the challenges of today and the future. This will not be accomplished by merely scoring well on tests. Our national plan needs to be "All children will think and respond".”
  • “Children are not like products coming from an assembly line. Trying to fit all students in one mold is ridiculous. Scrap the thing and start over.”
  • “For starters, NCLB does not take into consideration Special Education students with learning differences or students who are English Language Learners. They are ALL over-tested inappropriately. Teachers are often 'accountable" for conditions not in their control or influence.”
“No Child Left Behind is structurally sound as written, but should be renewed only if fully funded.” – 18.7%
  • “It is time that our government understand the educational systems of our competition. We will need to fund a program with high expectations. Students can only succeed in the globalized world if they are equipped with the tools for success. We must compete against the best and regain our status as the best. Failure is not an option!”
“No Child Left Behind has been effective at creating an air of accountability and should continue with few to no reforms.” – 2.9%
  • “No respondents in this category were comfortable with the use of their comment”