The Quick Key Story
Birth of a teacher tool…
Quick Key is a suite of mobile teacher tools created by Walter Duncan, a 15-year classroom teacher who used rapid classroom feedback to get his students into the top 15% of the Massachusetts MCAS exam. Using daily short quizzes, graded instantly, Walter was able to identify students and subjects that needed to be re-taught before moving on to the next lesson. The only problem with Walter’s system? Burn-out.
So Walter teamed up with Isaac D. Van Wesep, a friend from college, to build a prototype of Quick Key, a teacher tool for your phone that scans and grades quizzes and tests anywhere, with or without the Internet, and sends the results to your school’s electronic grade book.
Soon, 300 other teachers got on board, backing Quick Key’s Kickstarter to bring the prototype to market. The first version of Quick Key’s mobile teacher tool launched on the Apple App Store in September 2013. And the rest, as they say, is history!
Our promise
When you partner with us we stand by you every step of the way. We set up your school or district account, we train your teachers, we walk your organization step by step through the implementation process, and we handle all of the support. Quick Key integrates seamlessly into existing systems so that technology departments are not impacted, and your teachers get the tools they need while reducing their workload.
– Walter Duncan, Co-Founder, Quick Key & Design by Educators, Inc.
Join Quick Key co-founder Walter Duncan on twitter and ask him anything you would like. His handle is @4_teachers, he enjoys talking about Blooms Taxonomy, Formative Assessment, and Project Based Learning with educators around the globe.
CBS News Video: Quick Key
CBS Boston news coverage of Quick Key App
Meet the Quick Key Team
Isaac D. Van Wesep
CEO
Walter Duncan
Teacher / Co-Founder
Shawn Rosenberger
VP Sales
Paul Deardorff
Software Architect
Matt Wymore
Software Engineer
Jhon Fuenzalida
Software Engineer
Our Advisers
Gary June
Partner, Hatch Group. CMO Pearson Education.
Rita Ferrandino
Partner, ARC Capital
Steve Zukowski
SVP, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Kevin Custer
Partner, ARC Capital
Schuyler Lance
Managing Partner, Sustain VC
Our Customers
Spotlight on Quick Key Power Teacher and Vanguard Ambassador Cher Wheeler
My favorite thing about teaching is fostering a love of literature in my students. I love to see them get excited about a great story or poem and hearing their literature discussions energizes me.
I love the formative feedback that is provided instantly with Quick Key’s teacher tools because it helps me quickly address areas of weakness.
Students love getting a score instantly while the information is fresh on their minds, so that they can make corrections and ask questions.
Quick Key is invaluable for both students and teachers!
Cher Wheeler
WJMS, 6th Grade ELA
BCPS, Mythology 101 and Mythology Honors (online courses)
NBCT
What the press are saying
sharing our passion for closing the digital divide
Tech Crunch
“It’s rare to see an app go so viral so quickly and it’s a testament to the dedication of a group of teachers and entrepreneurs that they’ve been able to go from zero to viral in a few short hours.” Read more
Technotopia
Guys like Walter Duncan know what they’re talking about when it comes to ed-tech. Before becoming co-founder of Quick Key, Duncan spent years teaching in schools public and private and knows what teachers deal with on a daily basis. Listen to the Podcast
Venture Fizz
Going back and forth to a Scantron machine that is on its last legs, and doesn’t even give me the data I sorely need is too inefficient when it can all be done on a phone in an instant.” Read More
EdSurge
“…teachers are loving it … Istanbul teacher Younis Aydin recently used the app to grade 400 exams in less than an hour. It ain’t called “quick” for nothing!” Read more
District Administration
“Quick Key Mobile helps teachers improve student performance without teaching to the test” Read more
Education World
“the new app Quick Key is spreading like wildfire in classrooms across the country.” Read more
