Since the introduction of Long-Term English Learner courses in LA Unified in 2013, the number of those students designated as needing help with English has decreased by 6.4 percent, according to officials. The district has 36,322 students, or about 5.5 percent of the school population, designated as English learners, said Hilda Maldonado, executive director of...

There is a wide gulf of disparity when it comes to the performance of races and subgroups in LA Unified’s A through G completion and graduation rates, but these groups have come a long way and are doing better than ever before. Recent district reports breaking down the graduation rate as it heads into the final...

Among all the subgroups of LA Unified students who took the state’s new Smarter Balanced standardized tests, English language-learners (ELL) produced especially disappointing results, finishing behind the state average for ELLs and near the bottom compared with the state’s 11 other large districts. LA Unified has the most English learners of any district in the...

With a year-long state moratorium on standardized testing, LAUSD is crafting its own assessment to determine if English learning students are ready for an English-only curriculum. The new tests will look a lot like the tests they replace, said Hilda Maldonado, director of the LAUSD Multilingual and Multicultural department. The district had initially sought to purchase...

Over the past week Cynthia Van Houten, principal at Granada Elementary Charter Community, has been scrambling to get students in the right classrooms. Tomorrow is the deadline for principals and teachers throughout LA Unified to comply with a district policy that mandates all English learners be grouped by fluency, above all other criteria. Van Houten...