July 2004 PRI Ideas in Action
Policy Update and Monthly Impact Report

EDUCATION STUDIES KEY ISSUE: MEASURING STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT

Policy Briefing
California, like many states, measures and reports student performance in terms of school-wide and state averages. Goals for improvement are based on these averages rather than on the performance of each individual student. Using averages results in several perverse consequences, including focusing attention on students who score just below the proficiency cut-point on state tests. They are the easiest to raise above the bar, thereby improving a school's average performance score. As a result, the lowest and highest performing students are often given too little attention.

PRI Perspective
States must focus on the achievement growth of individuals rather than groups of students. A new PRI study, Putting Education to the Test, helps make that possible. It provides a new model for tracking students' academic improvements and setting targets for future growth. Given a student's current location on the ability scale, the model tells teachers and parents how much the student's achievement level needs to grow each year in order to be proficient by graduation, which is the goal of the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

Using this model, teachers can identify which students need remedial help or require greater attention. It can also be used to evaluate whether a student's exposure to a particular education program or teaching method has helped or hurt that progress. And since the model can identify especially effective teachers, incentives can be given to these teachers to teach in classrooms with low-performing students.

• In July, PRI released Putting Education to the Test: A Value-Added Model for California by Harold C. Doran and PRI education studies director Lance T. Izumi.
• On July 6, Lance met with U.S. Department of Education regional representative Mary Jane Pearson to discuss the findings of Putting Education to the Test. Copies were distributed to top Department officials including U.S. Education Secretary Rod Paige.
• On July 8, Lance met with California assistant secretary of education Anne McKinney to discuss the study and to circulate copies through Secretary Riordan's office. Later in the month he met with Governor Schwarzenegger's legislative analyst for higher education Paul Miner and deputy cabinet secretary Kimberly Yee.
• On July 15, PRI published the Capital Ideas column "Why California Needs a New Model to Measure Student Achievement" by policy fellow Xiaochin Yan.
• On July 16, Lance distributed the study to the California Business Roundtable for use at the July education conference of the National Business Roundtable.
• Lance was interviewed about the study by NBC national radio news, KMED-AM (OR), KERNAM (CA), WEEU-AM (PA), and the San Jose Mercury News.
• Lance's op-eds and letters to the editor ran in the Chattanooga Times Free Press, Northern Virginia Journal, and Indianapolis Star.
• Articles and editorials about the study ran in The Times (Shreveport, LA), the Calgary Herald in Canada, World magazine, and the Fordham Foundation e-publication The Education Gadfly.

Policy Briefing
On June 22 in San Francisco, U.S. District Judge Martin Jenkins granted class-action status for a suit charging that Wal-Mart discriminates against women. Now the largest class-action suit on record, Wal-Mart faces a case that involves not just seven women, but 1.6 million current and former Wal-Mart employees. Plaintiffs charge that the mega-discount retailer discriminates against women. It begs the question that if Wal-Mart is such a bastion of oppression, why do so many women choose to work and shop at its stores?

PRI Perspective
Women make up 66 percent of Wal-Mart's hourly workforce and 80 percent of the department managers. The class-action plaintiffs charge that few women move up from there; however, when the company posted a notice for a management training program, 43 percent of the applicants were women, the same percentage that it promoted.

Perhaps many women choose to work at Wal-Mart because it offers profit-sharing and bonus programs, both criticized by unions. Union membership has dropped from 30 percent of the workforce in the 1950s to some 13 percent today. Wal-Mart also contributes up to two percent of pay to a 401(k) for its employees, even if the employee chooses not to contribute.

The company denies that it discriminates and says it bases remuneration on position, experience, performance, and other qualifications. But the case against Wal-Mart follows the standard feminist stereotype of women as victims, men as villains, and large corporations as inherently evil. The lesson for successful companies is that if they want to treat people as individuals, and not members of a victim group or class, they could face a three-pronged attack of greed, feminism, and judicial activism. This, not competition, is what turns the marketplace into a hostile environment.

• On July 19, Sally Pipes's op-ed"Wal-Mart suit uses bad logic" was published in the San Francisco Examiner.
• On July 29, Sally's letter to the editor was published in The New York Times, responding to Barbara Ehrenreich's "Wal-Mars Invades Earth" column of July 25.

TECHNOLOGY STUDIES KEY ISSUE: – REGULATION OF NEW TECHNOLOGY- VOICE OVER INTERNET PROTOCOL (VOIP)

Policy Briefing
Congress is currently considering a bill to bar states from meddling with Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), which allows the Internet to be used like a telephone. The bill, by Senator John Sununu (R-New Hampshire), is one of many reactions to a growing movement from states and the pro-regulation forces to control VoIP.

VoIP works by taking sound and converting it into packets of computer data that are sent across the Internet and then reassembled into sound at the specified destination. Although the technology uses the Internet to provide the service, adaptors exist that allow it to be used with a regular phone, so consumers of VoIP don't have to be computer savvy.

This past month, the IRS announced that it is considering whether VoIP should be subject to excise taxes, and the FBI has been pushing for assurance of wiretapping abilities. The mammoth regulatory system that held back innovation in the traditional telephone space is now coming down hard on VoIP.

PRI Perspective
It's disturbing that pioneers of this revolutionary technology are now forced to defend themselves against public servants who are supposed to be working on behalf of consumers' interests. This is just another reason why many people feel that the entire convoluted telecommunications regulatory machine should be dismantled. In 1996, Congress passed a Telecommunications Act that was supposed to create a "pro-competitive, deregulatory national policy framework," but instead the last eight years have been filled with regulatory wrangling and burdensome lawsuits. Through regulations stemming from the 1996 Act, government forced phone companies like the Bells to share their infrastructure with rivals at prices set by regulators. This scheme created a false "competition" that hampered and distorted investment. Now that disruptive technologies are making old services obsolete, the recognition that old regulations are obsolete should follow. Unfortunately, not everyone sees it that way.

• In July, Sonia had four columns in TechNewsWorld, addressing copyright issues, Hillary Clinton and technology, a new bill to bar states from meddling with VoIP, and telecom and state organizations.
• Also in July, Sonia's column on Bush vs. Kerry ran on TechCentralStation.com.
• On July 2, Sonia was quoted in eWeek on privacy and email.
• On July 12, PRI hosted a roundtable breakfast with FCC Chairman Michael Powell. Attendees included business leaders, legislators and staffers, representatives of the PUC, and David Crane, special advisor for jobs and economic growth for Governor Schwarzenegger. Topics discussed included VoIP, telecom deregulation, wireless policies, U.S. v. European standards, and increasing consumer welfare.
• On July 29-Aug 1, Sonia discussed technology policy issues with attendees at the annual Star Trek convention in Las Vegas.

OTHER RECENT IMPACT- Health Care

• On July 20, Sally's op-ed "Consumers Wind Up Victims of Drug-Importers' Schemes" was published in Investor's Business Daily.
• On July 1, Sally Pipes's op-ed "Saying No to Foreign Drugs" was published by National Review Online.

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