your sarcasm is misplaced and your assumptions unnecessary. if you want to see how multiple track systems work, look outside the US. For instance the essence of this system in The Netherlands:
- the primary school offers a single track system. Children advancing to secondary school receive a qualitative assessment from the primary school for the track they will likely be most fit for. The qualitative (and thus subjective) assessment is extended with a qualitative assessment ( a test ).
- students start secondary school with one or two years of single track education, before the school decides which track they will be allowed to attend
- students are able to downgrade and upgrade their track, depening on results and approval from school.
In practice the system works quite well, with some issues here and there (for instance there is no real feedback loop from secondary to primary school, so primary teachers don't really learn whether their subjective recommendations are any good).