Reddit mentions of The Flat World and Education: How America's Commitment to Equity Will Determine Our Future (Multicultural Education Series)

I don't follow your logic. The US has historically had much more local and state control of education largely due to its size and, as you say, differing demands in different regions. At a local or state level though, it seems quite possible to follow a model more like Finland's.

> "That isn't to say that tracking is meant to completely disregard unmotivated populations."

This isn't very re-assuring.

There's considerable evidence that tracking hurts lower achieving students (refer here for instance). There is certainly a need to provide individualized instruction and this may mean some ability grouping (though caution is warranted), but full on tracking has been quite problematic. Check out The Flat World and Education: How America's Commitment to Equity Will Determine Our Future for a more thorough look at this issue.