The New York Times plays Virginian Pilot editors for fools about those Wake County test scores:

The Virginian Pilot wrote an editorial based on an easily fact–checked lie by the New York Times.

What was the lie?

It was asserted that Wake County Black and Hispanic students dramatically improved their test scores because of “efforts to integrate schools economically.”

What was left out of the story was that across the state of North Carolina all black kids showed the same improvement. In other words, economic integration had nothing to do with it.

There are three lessons here:

• Fact check the New York Times
• Fact check the Virginian Pilot – in fact, the odds is if you go against the Pilot’s editorial position you are apt to win the lottery.
  
• This kind of stupid analysis leads to stupid policy decisions because too many elected officials still read either the NY Times or the Virginian Piltdown.
  
  Read the whole article and then check to original sources they are linked to. Believe nothing in the news media and always go to original sources.