Lance Izumi Koret Senior Fellow in Education Studies Senior Director, Education Studies Lance T. Izumi, J.D. is Koret Senior Fellow and Senior Director of Education Studies at the Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy (PRI), California’s premier free-market public-policy think tank based in San Francisco and Sacramento. He is the co-author of the groundbreaking book Not as Good as You Think: Why the Middle Class Needs School Choice (San Francisco, CA: Pacific Research Institute, 2007), which has been praised by publications such as The Wall Street Journal and Education Week. He is co-executive producer of the award-winning 2009 PRI full-length film documentary Not as Good As You Think: The Myth of the Middle Class School, which is based on his 2007 book. The film has been broadcast multiple times on PBS. He also appears in Academy Award-winning director Davis Guggenheim’s major 2010 education film documentary Waiting for Superman, which was voted best U.S. documentary at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival. In 2008, The New York Times selected Lance Izumi to be one of its online contributors on the presidential race and education issues. In 2009, The New York Times posted “Sweden’s Choice,” a video op-ed which he wrote and narrated and which has garnered critical praise. He is also the co-author of the book Free to Learn: Lessons from Model Charter Schools (San Francisco, CA: Pacific Research Institute 2005), which has been used as a guidebook for creating high-performing charter schools in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. 

 Lance Izumi is the author/co-author of numerous major PRI studies, including the "California Education Report Card: Index of Leading Education Indicators" (1997, 2000, 2003 and 2007 editions), "Failing our Future: The Holes in California’s School Accountability System and How to Fix Them" (2006), "Putting Education to the Test: A Value-Added Model for California" (2004). "They Have Overcome: High-Poverty, High-Performing Schools in California" (2002), "Facing the Classroom Challenge: Teacher Quality and Teacher Training in California’s Schools of Education" (2001), and "Developing and Implementing Academic Standards" (1999). Lance Izumi is a member of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, the largest system of higher education in the nation with nearly 3 million students. He served two one-year terms as president of the Board of Governors from 2008 through 2009, and in 2010 he received an award recognizing his leadership and service. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger initially appointed him to the Board in 2004 and re-appointed him in 2009. 

 In 2008, the United States Army appointed Lance Izumi to its Los Angeles/Southern California Advisory Board Executive Committee. In that capacity, he assists the Army with its community outreach, image enhancement, and recruiting efforts.
 In 2010, the Army’s Sacramento Recruiting Battalion named him president of its grassroots advisory council. In 2007, Lance Izumi was named to the California Advisory Committee of the United States Commission on Civil Rights. In 2003, United States secretary of education Rod Paige appointed him to the Teacher Assistance Corps, a task force of experts assigned to review state teacher quality plans as they relate to the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

 He also served a five-year term as a commissioner on the California Postsecondary Education Commission, the state’s higher education coordinating body. Lance Izumi is the co-editor of two books: Teacher Quality (Hoover Institution Press and Pacific Research Institute, 2002) and School Reform: The Critical Issues (Hoover Institution Press and Pacific Research Institute, 2001). 

For ten years, he was a regular contributor to the "Perspectives" opinion series on KQED-FM, the National Public Radio affiliate in San Francisco. Prior to going into the think-tank world, Lance Izumi served as chief speechwriter(continued)