When I spoke in Rhode Island in October, I said that test scores were at their highest point in the past 40 years. I also said that the rate of increase had slowed after the passage of NCLB and Race to the Top. The largest recent gains occurred from 2000-2003, before the implementation of NCLB. Whoever writes the PolitiFact column for the Providence Journal claimed that my statements were “mostly false,” for reasons I did not understand, since I had the graphs from the US Department of Education to back me up.
I wrote a response, which the paper did not print.
Historian-teacher John Thompson corrected PolitiFact as well, included in the previous link.
The newspaper just issued a correction, admitting its error.
It is good to set the record straight.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Around the year 2000 there was a big shift. Whole Language learning was dismisses. I still believe that this is the way to go, but it threatened the publishers who crushed it. It relied upon authentic texts and not reductionist test prep. I read an old book about Thanksgiving to a class during the holiday and the children recognized the power of authentic texts, you could hear a pin drop. The language and phrasing was a work of art.
Not the crap of publishers today.
I wonder if PolitiFact is seriously interested in finding facts. They’ve made some errors that suggest their ratings might be attempts at political balance.
http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/rachel-maddow-politifact-you-are-fired
I think they came shy of admitting that they were wrong, but at least they admitted that there was significant resistance to their ruling.
But what a strategic delay!
I’m glad you were accurate (and well sourced) the first time, and that people had the patience to keep after the “fact checkers” until they corrected their mistake. It’s too bad they don’t spend more time looking at the errors published daily in Chicago’s two newspapers, but that’s on us, I guess.