I used to tutor a Laotian-American girl (Iu-Mien) in Latin, math, and general sciences. (she's now in college.) She was born in this country and spoke English natively. I never tutored her in English and was amazed to discover that she was in an ESL class. On parents night, my wife and I, in loco parentis and with her mom's permission, went to visit her school and find out why she was in a regular English class. Sitting amongst the other parents, we got an astonished look and double-take from the teacher, who at first thought we might be Russians (we were the only Europeans in the room besides the teacher). We were unable to get her out of the ESL class, and we never got a straight answer about how she'd come to be placed in one: tests, etc.? The math class was even worse. There was a permanent substitute teaching that class, again mainly with all non-European ethnicities represented. (I saw most of the same students and parents as I trudged from class to class. Tracking?) The teacher also was a self-proclaimed math-idiot. My impression was that parents didn't show up because they were embarassed or intimidated by the teachers and the school. They all showed up for the graduation though.