Williams’, Kotterman’s Ed Supe platforms

by David Safier

Jason Williams and Penny Kotterman are traveling around the state wooing Democratic voters for their Superintendent of Education primary candidacies, making their cases based on their bios and their stands on the issues.

Williams just sent out a press release explaining his campaign platform, which makes this a good time to look at what he and Kotterman are proposing.

For a complete look at their platforms, go to Kotterman's website and Williams' website.

Most of what both of them propose is pretty much what you would expect from Democratic candidates. However, while Kotterman plays it pretty safe with her stands, WIlliams takes a few bold stands which will probably win him some votes and lose him some others — specifically in the areas of merit pay, student retention, AIMS testing and teacher accountability.

• Williams comes out strong for "performance-based compensation" — in other words, some form of merit pay. "A performance-based compensation plan would be connected to the new accountability system, using multiple indicators of both student achievement and professional growth. Designing a performance pay system needs to include all of the stakeholders, especially the teachers."
• Kotterman emphasizes raising teachers' base pay to make it "competitive with other professions with similar qualifications and structured in a manner that encourages excellence in teaching." Her statements about some form of performance-based pay are general. She says there should be "incentives and rewards based upon transparent and clearly-defined criteria and expectations."
• Williams takes a strong stand for holding students back who haven't attained a certain level of proficiency. In fact, he wants 3 "Gateway Years" — 3rd grade, 8th grade, and 12th grade — "at which point students who are not performing proficiently will not be promoted." He advocates lots of early intervention to help students attain proficiency before they reach a point where they are held back.
• Kotterman doesn't mention the idea of student retention on her issues page.
• Williams says AIMS testing has been watered down and needs to be strengthened and broadened. "We need to raise the bar on the level of difficulty for our state assessments, making them measures of college and career-readiness, but we also need to ensure we are capturing a full understanding of what a student knows and can do. No singular test can ever measure fully students’ skills and knowledge."
• Kotterman says she wants "Fair and effective assessments," but isn't specific. She wants to see data collected from tests and other sources used to improve schools: "We must use the massive amounts of data gained from students' performance on these examination to continually improve our schools."
• Williams wants teachers "held responsible for moving all of his or her students forward every year." Based on students' skill levels when they enter the classroom, "Teachers have the responsibility for ensuring students make at least a year’s worth of progress during the school year."
• Kotterman doesn't discuss teacher-based accountability. She emphasizes "rigorous and relevant" teacher training programs and the need for schools to have "quality technology-based learning environments that can expand educational options for students and supplement traditional education approaches."

Those are the points that jump out at me when I look for policy differences. Both candidates' websites state reasonably similar positions on other issues.