Posts by NBH
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Hard News: Gower Speaks, in reply to izogi,
Whether it helps to create a definitive yes/no meaning or not, I don't understand the point in asking questions that need such a lead-in to make sense
Yeah, if you were going to make this question - and presumably the Orivida one as well - properly robust you'd make it two questions with the first being something along the lines of 'How much have you heard about David Cunliffe's financing of his campaign for leader?', and then filter out (during or afterwards) everyone who gave responses in the 'nothing' or 'a little' zone. If the news org can only have four new/unique questions per survey, though, that isn't practical.
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Hard News: Schools: can we get a plan up…, in reply to Matthew Poole,
So a school in a neighbourhood that would be decile 5 which has a majority of pupils from households in decile 1 is going to be below decile 5; more likely around decile 2 or 3.
Or conversely there's the Wellington College situation, where zones are gamed so that a Decile 10 school is located in/between 'Area Units' that you can think of as equivalent to Decile 5 and 2 (NZDEP 5 and 9 - and yeah, I know you shouldn't cross measures in this way, but it illustrates a point in this case).
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Busytown: School bully, in reply to BenWilson,
All good - and although it predates my professional lifetime, I've heard some really mind-boggling stories about the empire-building and let's say 'optimistic' visions that drove some behaviour in the 90s.
In my experience most of that seems to have been washed out of the system now, though, and ITPs/Polytechs are much more focused on understanding how they can help students (and that includes the communities in which students live and work) and doing that effectively. I know some of my education policy colleagues would disagree, but I think that Labour's introduction of the first Tertiary Education Strategy in the 2000s and the consequent focus on 'distinctive contributions' of different parts of the tertiary system had a role in that shift.
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Busytown: School bully, in reply to BenWilson,
It's also worth nothing that since the 80s there are a lot more places calling themselves universities, where before they were called Techs
This isn't true. 'University' is a legally protected term in NZ, and although one Polytech (or ITP) became a university (AIT become AUT) after an incredibly tortuous process that universities fought against tooth and nail, legislation was promptly enacted to block off any others. The current Chair of the TEC Board might claim that 'polytechs want to be universities', but that really seems to be evidence that that he hasn't set foot in one since around 1998 rather than an accurate statement of the atmosphere in that part of the tertiary education sector.
It's also worth noting - although this is getting close to breaking my 'don't comment on professional matters on blogs' rule - that in many areas the ITP sector is miles ahead of the universities. For example, the new quality assurance regime that applies to them (SA/EER) is based on genuine evaluation and reflective practice principles and is far more effective - albeit still with teething problems - than the audit-based mindset that still dominates universities.
Sorry for the slight rant - this type of comment just strikes a bit of a nerve.
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Hard News: Spring Timing, in reply to BenWilson,
If you’re offended by being called a wonk, I apologize. It’s a label that I’ve never encountered any offence before at, wonks are usually proud of it.
As someone who's occasionally had the term applied to me, I can say I find it intensely annoying. But then I also can't stand use of the term 'Beltway' instead of the much more apposite 'Thorndon Bubble'. Wellington doesn't *have* a Beltway, and hearing it always makes me think the user is just fantasising they're a character in The West Wing.
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Hard News: Spring Timing, in reply to Tinakori,
I think the problem is that Cunliffe said that his was from the B School not the far less competitive, prestigious and rigorous pub admin school
Um, the Kennedy School of Government is exceptionally prestigious. I'm personally not a fan because I prefer the European policy tradition over the US approach, but it's one of the highest-ranked public administration schools in the world (around 3rd or so).
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For reference, the SSC has a handy list of the organisations to whom the State Sector Code of Conduct applies: http://www.ssc.govt.nz/code-organisations. Note that CRIs and universities are not included in that, so in those cases it's purely down to organisational policy.
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Hard News: Narcissists and bullies, in reply to Henry Barnard,
He even seemed to say that he wasn't even going to try and find out anything about the case, yet, because he didn't need to. He was just going to pass on whatever he was told.
He didn't just seem to - he said exactly that on Morning Report today: http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2575628/police-czar-welcomes-ipca-review (from 5:10 on)
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Deborah, that track is Minchin being a Dawkins-level ignorant dick. Speaking as someone who a) has worked in this area in the past, b) has just started a PhD specifically on EBP/EBM, and c) is an actual person with an actual chronic health condition requiring daily management, the area is a hell of a lot more complicated than glib, inaccurate lines like that.
Sacha, was that the NHC/PHAC? I was in the Secretariat for part of his term there and became incredibly impressed with Kevin during that time. I think he's probably the best-informed MP in his particular portfolio area in the history of the NZ Parliament (seriously: Aids foundation, Funding Authority, ministerial Advisory Committee, multiple DHB positions... - he's essentially occupied every position you can in the system) and he's become something of a personal hero since then.
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Hard News: So long, and thanks for all…, in reply to Hebe,
this thread is unintelligible to non-Labour people
To be fair Hebe, I'm not sure how many of the people who have participated in this thread are actually 'Labour people'. One of the other chronic issues Labour has is a lot of people (myself included) telling them what they *should* do, without getting involved in the party and helping them do it.