The absolute magnitude of the RR Lyrae stars is integral to
determining the distances to old stellar systems in our Galaxy and
other nearby galaxies.  The variation in absolute magnitude with metal
abundance [Fe/H] is also a key to deriving the age spread and
age-metallicity relation in the Galactic globular cluster system,
which in turn places important constraints on Galactic formation
scenarios.

A number of methods have been used to estimate the RR Lyrae absolute
magnitude, including Baade-Wesselink (surface brightness) analyses
(Jones et al. 1992), main sequence fitting of globular clusters
(Buonanno et al. 1988), application of stellar pulsation theory to
field stars (Sandage \& Cacciari 1990), horizontal branch evolution
theory (Lee et al. 1990) and previous applications of the statistical
parallax method (Hawley et al. 1986, Strugnell et al. 1986).  Carney
et al. (1992) reviewed these recent efforts and formed an absolute
magnitude -- metallicity relation using several of the methods.  There
is still a rather large zero point discrepancy between the statistical
parallax value (from field stars) and many of the globular cluster and
theoretical methods.

Recent improvements in the data available for the local field RR Lyrae
stars make it an opportune time for a new statistical parallax
investigation.  We follow the method of Hawley et al. 1986, using
improved data, more stars, and with more care in the population
separation in order to determine whether a trend in the absolute
magnitude with metallicity can be detected.