1. Educational philosophy
2. Cognitive level of decision-makers
3. Fear of difference/change
4. Cynicism about parents/politically-motivated decisions
I don't mean #2 in a pejorative way, but in a literal sense: it's too far out of their personal experience to really understand the negative outcomes of inappropriate programming.
I've even had push-back while advocating for services for gifted students as a member of the district gifted program admissions team. (As in, no, we cannot admit the PTA president's 114 IQ kid, and, please, let's give another look to this kid who scored 145 on the CogAT, but doesn't get along with her teacher.)
