Posts by Scott Chris
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Hard News: Moving from frustration to disgust, in reply to Tom Semmens,
But just five private schools send more pupils to Oxford and Cambridge than the next 2000 schools combined, and nowadays almost the entire British political elite is narrowly drawn from those who matriculated at the Oxbridge universities.
That’s how a filter system works. I see nothing sinister in these numbers.
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Hard News: Moving from frustration to disgust, in reply to Kumara Republic,
If that’s the case, then why are the likes of Auckland Grammar cherry-picking and poaching the 1st XV prospects, and blocking out everyone else from the wrong side of the tracks?
Because they are acting self-interestedly as are the kids concerned. But that's beside the point. Grammar is not a political institution.
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Hard News: Moving from frustration to disgust, in reply to Rob Stowell,
Seriously: you think this “long tail” of “under-achievement” in NZ schools is something we don’t know enough about and can’t identify?
No, I’m saying that your professional judgement (assuming you are a teacher) is enhanced when presented in an objective way.
To illustrate my point Russel said:
A friend of mine teaches at a Wellington school that has a good rep for teaching disabled kids
Compare this anecdotal testimony with an alternative hypothetical description:
School A has 1 special needs dedicated teacher per 10 s.n. children whereas school B has 1 special needs dedicated teacher per 12 s.n. children.
Surely a sounder basis of knowledge from which to make an informed decision as to which school would be suitable for one’s child would be sourced from a combination of both anecdotal and empirical evidence?
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Hard News: Moving from frustration to disgust, in reply to Russell Brown,
I honestly don’t think you understand how national standards work in practice.
Russell, from the Schagen article:
National standards are driven by a commitment to help students get the reading, writing and mathematics skills they need so they can learn all the subjects in the New Zealand curriculum and gain worthwhile qualifications.
The standards describe what a student should be able to do at each year level. Those students who aren’t at the standard are identified and provided with the assistance they need to make progress.
If schools aren’t achieving those aims in practice then there is something wrong with that practice (but not necessarily the practitioners). Perhaps what you mean is that I don’t understand the social ramifications of this policy in which case I would also demur.
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Hard News: Moving from frustration to disgust, in reply to Kumara Republic,
What problem is it exactly that all of this government’s education policies are trying to fix?
The problem is not enough socialism for the rich, and not enough free market for the poor.
I don’t agree. You can’t efficiently identify and assist under-performing students if you can’t measure them objectively. And the most obvious flaw in your rhetorical assertion is that it is not in the ‘rich’ sector’s interests to to incite revolution but it is in their interests to educate and enrich the poor so they’ll ultimately buy more of the rich’s goods and services without having to resort to unsustainable indebtedness.
Ultimately both sides of the political divide want what’s best for the overall betterment of society in spite of all the hot air. They simply have different ideas as how to best attain that goal.
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Hard News: Moving from frustration to disgust, in reply to Russell Brown,
They are a very narrow means of comparing schools’ performance, one that has many perverse and undesirable effects.
Whichever set of criteria is chosen to serve as a basis of comparison, the range will be narrow owing to the demands of practical necessity. Some things are easier to measure than others, such as reading age and basic numeracy.
Also, if teachers refuse to submit to being tested, another blunt means of assessing their competency is to measure their school's performance relative to itself and other schools.
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Regardless of the rough shod way in which the government has implemented the National Standards policy there is no way to measure a child’s academic achievement relative to his/her peers without introducing fixed national standards against which they can be objectively compared. League tables are an unfortunate but inevitable consequence of attempting to definitively describe a child’s relative academic ability.
If the sticking point for some of those who are opposed to this policy is the hasty implementation and quality of the testing then I’m inclined to agree, but I am fundamentally opposed to any testing regime other than one which is norm referenced.
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Hard News: Friday Music: The Jazz, in reply to Danielle,
Of course when it comes to The Police, the thing is that it’s only tangentially about Sting.
Speaking of tangents; it don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that Sting:
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Hard News: Friday Music: The Jazz, in reply to Richard Stewart,
you either like it or you hate it.
Full blown jamming jazz gets my goat, but I like it as an influence in pop:
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Hard News: The Perfect Drug, in reply to BenWilson,
Considering how fast he was to suggest escitalopram to my wife for anxiety, a mood altering SSRI with quite far reaching effects, I nearly choked on the hypocrisy of the guy.
You may be being a little hard on him. Speaking as an abstainer with an unhealthy predilection for psychoactive substances, SSRIs have about as much appeal as a weekend in Gore.