Howard Blume and Ben Ehrenreich

In fact, it hasn’t fared well — at least not as far as one can determine given the lack of comprehensive data. Critics like to point out that only about 6.5 percent of California’s limited-English students were redesignated as fluent in English last year. In L.A. Unified, the number is......

Enrique Soberanes knows one particular spot on the floor of the principal's office at Eastman Avenue Elementary School very well. It's a tile circle covering a metal utility plate held in place by four brass screws. He knows the spot because, as an Eastman student during the early '70s, he......