The first expert witness called by the state in the school finance trial in Austin ? paid more than $75,000 for his testimony ? praised the performance of public schools at current funding levels, but also called into question two of the major talking points raised by state attorneys in defending the funding system. Grover Whitehurst, an education policy expert at the Brookings Institution, lauded Texas schools for having a high graduation rate in comparison with other states, as reported in a national study.Texas? graduation rate of 86 percent tied for fourth with five other states ? a statistic that has been touted by state leaders. But during cross examination by an attorney for school districts suing the state, Whitehurst was confronted with his recent comments in a Washington Times article, in which he voiced skepticism about the graduation rate numbers.
?We know schools can cheat,? Whitehurst acknowledged, explaining that the system for compiling graduation rates is too new to fully control for cheating by school districts when they report dropout and graduation data. In the news article, he said the system has flaws that make it possible for high schools to game the system and understate their dropout numbers. That includes reporting some students who drop out as having moved away or transferred to another district ? which keeps them out of the final dropout numbers. Whitehurst also said he could not explain how Texas dramatically improved its graduation rate in only two years.
State attorneys also have been arguing that larger class sizes in Texas ? the result of a $5.4 billion funding cut by the Legislature last year ? have not hurt students because class sizes don?t affect achievement. Whitehurst testified in support of that position. But again, under cross examination by Dallas lawyer John Turner, Whitehurst had to acknowledge that he wrote an article praising a well-publicized study of lower class sizes in Tennessee that found significant improvement in student achievement. Whitehurst explained that he had changed his mind since writing the article and now has doubts that class size has much impact on learning. In later testimony, he said he was being paid $340 an hour by the state to testify in the case, and had already racked up 220 billable hours ? for just under $75,000 ? before he took the witness stand.
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