Every time I read these threads, I feel really grateful that reading levels don't appear to be emphasized at my childen's school. (I've never received one or been given any metrics other than once, my child's correct WPM.)
To use your example: What if little Jonny wanted to read War and Peace? Then Sally and Sue's parents find out and go to the teacher and say they want Sally and Sue to read War and Peace as well. What is the harm in that? So they all read war and peace - Johnny might actually be able to understand it, while Sally and Sue read it, but it is hard - and they only can follow pieces of it...maybe they even need their parents to help them out with sections of it.... Would that be such a bad thing?
From a teacher's POV, the harm would be that some kids really are not capable of reading war and Peace (or whatever, obviously) and trying to read it to keep up with the Joneses will keep them from developing the grade-level skills they need to work on. Some children really do need to work with controlled phonics readers, move ahead slowly, etc so they can gain fluency and confidence. You don't want frustrated kids. At the same time, the flaw in this argument arises because I generally assume that a child who is frustrated and having difficulty will make that clear.
