EDITORIAL SIGNS OF PROGRESS IMPROVED TEST SCORES ARE A CREDIT TO LAUSD AND ENGLISH IMMERSION.

SCORE another point for the Los Angeles Unified School District and to voters who demanded that all children be taught primarily in English.

After decades of a can't-do spirit and nothing but excuses and mediocrity, the LAUSD appears to be rounding the corner.

Superintendent Roy Romer has aggressively tackled overcrowding with the nation's largest school construction program. Test scores are up in elementary schools. And now, according to the latest numbers, English-language learners are making vast strides toward fluency.

The district surely still has a ways to go, but its progress is unmistakable - and impressive.

Three years ago, a mere 16 percent of the LAUSD's English-language learners were considered proficient in English. Last year that number jumped to 29 percent, and this year it's up to 42 percent, just 1 point shy of the statewide average.

Those numbers exceed gains made across California, which is due in part to the fact that the LAUSD had more ground to make up, as well as the district's efforts at beefing up teacher training and curricula.

But the statewide increase points to another key factor in the progress: The end of bilingual education, which California voters demanded in a 1998 referendum.

As a concept, bilingual education had great promise, but in application, it failed miserably. And after decades of the education establishment's inability to reform the broken bilingual system, voters took matters into their own hands.

Now students are finally catching up under the immersion regimen that the education establishment bitterly opposed. And the results have not only improved English-proficiency scores, but no doubt also played a role in the overall improvement of standardized test scores.

As Los Angeles school board President Jose Huizar put it, ``English- language learners make up 40 percent of our students. If they succeed, the LAUSD succeeds.''

And make no mistake about it: On several different levels, the LAUSD is showing definite signs of success.