The middle schooler who was not able to get into the class she wanted was left out due to a teacher not giving her a recommendation. Her grades were fine. This is not a product of tracking, more of a discrimination.
Indeed, that's the major problem. As long as subjective review is part of the process, then bias, either conscious or otherwise, will play a major role in that process.
Of course, if you're a member of the privileged group, and you want to exploit it, then it's not a "problem," per se.
As an aside, my 8th grader told me before that her and her friends are so anxious about college because they were constantly told to think about careers, taking tests to determine abilities/interests, etc. My state requires this type of thing as part of the curriculum. While I agree that one should ponder the great what if -- what do I want to do with my life? -- one should not be 13 and freaking out that you don't know what you want to be. I told her not to stress -- a large number of college students change their major in the first year or two. Obviously they didn't know for sure what they wanted to do either!
We met DD's principal when she first took on the job during DD's first grade year, and in that meeting, she said that, in order to be successful, kids today need to know what their careers will be before they finish xth grade (can't recall exactly, but I think x=4 or 5). Said principal had already introduced herself as someone new to the education field, from a marketing background.
That's how I know cognitive dissonance is a thing, because her head didn't explode.
