NZI 2019 Staff BRIAR LIPSON 03

Briar Lipson

Adjunct Senior Fellow

Briar specialises in education. Before joining the Initiative she was a Maths teacher and Assistant Principal in London. Briar has worked for International Education consultancy CfBT, and the Westminster think tank Policy Exchange. She holds a Masters Degree in Economics from the University of Edinburgh. 

Latest reports:
New Zealand’s Education Delusion: How bad ideas ruined a once world-leading school system (2020)
Research Note: Ignorance is not bliss: Why knowledge matters (and why we may not have enough of it) (2019)
Spoiled by Choice: How NCEA hampers education, and what it needs to succeed  (2018)

Scroll down to read the rest of Briar's work.

Phone: +64 4 499 0790

Email: briar.lipson@nzinitiative.org.nz

Recent Work

Teacher3

Tiptoeing towards a truly national curriculum

In his speech last week at the NZEI conference, Education Minister Hipkins reminded the audience of primary school teachers that he had scrapped national standards because he was listening, and because the standards were neither national nor standard. It was catchy rhetoric that, if we follow his logic, has implications for our national curriculum, too. Read more

Briar Lipson
Insights Newsletter
4 October, 2019
Maori Language week Kia Kaha

‘Kia Kaha te Reo Maori’

Monday saw Wellington’s Lambton Quay come alive with a joyful parade celebrating Māori Language Week. Yet, when asked whether her government would make te Reo compulsory in schools Prime Minister Ardern dodged the question, explaining instead that even if the government wanted to do this, New Zealand lacks the necessary teaching workforce. Read more

Briar Lipson
Insights Newsletter
13 September, 2019
apple on book1

Knowledge is the answer

During a visit to a new London charter school in 2015, then-Mayor Boris Johnson sparred with a 12-year-old over the year the Roman Empire converted to Christianity (313 AD). Johnson was wrong (by a year) and dumbstruck by the knowledge of the inner-city children. Read more

Briar Lipson
The National Business Review
6 September, 2019
Classroom student5

The misshapen horse of NCEA

The saying goes that a camel is like a horse designed by a committee. Of course, the analogy does not actually work to denigrate the work of committees – camels are highly adapted to desert life – but, still, the image of a misshapen horse holds meaning, and relevance to NCEA. Read more

Briar Lipson
Education Central
31 May, 2019
Books

NCEA changes a welcome start

This week, we were happy to see the changes to NCEA announced by Education Minister Chris Hipkins. It is encouraging that the Minister’s NCEA Change Package mirrors so many of the recommendations in our 2018 report, Spoiled by Choice: How NCEA hampers education, and what it needs to succeed. Read more

Briar Lipson
Insights Newsletter
17 May, 2019
Tomorrows Schools

Hubs raise unanswered questions

The question of how to help schools face challenging circumstances was a key focus of Monday’s Tomorrow’s Schools review discussion held jointly by the Initiative and Victoria University’s Faculty of Education. The Tomorrow’s Schools Taskforce is clear, and the Initiative agrees, that there is a serious and stubborn problem of underachievement among students from certain ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. Read more

Briar Lipson
Insights Newsletter
5 April, 2019

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