SCHOOLS AS SORTERS: THE CONSTITUTIONAL AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS OF STUDENT CLASSIFICATION*

During the past two decades, courts have sought to define with particularity the meaning (or, better, meanings) of equal educational opportunity. Only recently, however, have courts examined within-school practices-ability grouping, special education placement, exclu-sion of "ineducable " children-which classify students on the basis of academic performance or potential. In this Article, Professor Kirp assesses both the plausibility of treating student classification issues in equal protection and due process terms, and the policy consequences of such treatment. * This Article emerges from extended discussions over a considerable period of time with colleagues at Harvard and, more recently, the University of California (Berkeley). The Harvard Center for Law and Education participated in several of the cases discusse