The school we are in is mostly poor kids who are English learners.
We transferred to a different one (we are between the two, location wise), which is 75% poor kids and 50% English learners. Still a poor school, slightly less poor.
The next one over is the rich school, with a great test scores, rich kids, they raise 10x the amount of money we do in a year (and 100x our home school, probably)....AND a number of the smart kids transfer out because their parents don't want them going to school with poor kids who are English learners.
The problem is not that people hate poor kids who are English learners, the problem is (rightly) that kids who don't know English suck up a huge amount of finite resources (classroom time, teacher attention, etc) that could go towards moving other kids forward. The more time you spend teaching 9th graders how to read at a 3rd grade level, the less time you're spending teaching them stuff they need to learn in 9th grade. True, maybe your super gifted kid isn't in their same class, but it still takes resources overall, and there will still probably be some general-type classes where they will be in class with everyone, not just other gifted kids.
I guess it really depends on the school and the grade. My son's grade has a good number of gifted students - I'd say 6 out of 60, plus a good number of other really bright kids, maybe another 14.
The school distributes them among the classes. So in fourth grade, 2 classrooms, they split up all the kids - so half the smart kids in each class. Yes, the English learners do suck up more time, but in general the school gets around it by clustering and doing "pull outs" for math and English every week.
I've known a few families who transfer out. Their reasons vary, from "less fundraising", to more opportunities (some of the kids I've known are truly gifted, and can really benefit from the magnet program, whereas my son so far has done well wherever.) But many of them get caught up in the "upper middle class white" thing really. By their own admission. "it's the "best" school, so we had to go". A few have admitted that they miss our old school. (And I'm not a fan in general of the politics. One family transferred their GATE daughter to the magnet program and she was miserable. The amount of work, pressure, and hours of homework each night and every weekend left her NO time for much else. She was in tears nightly. She asked to come back to her home school, and the GATE school said "well, no, we've decided the only spot for you is school C". (Incidentally, my home school which scores a 1 or 2 out of 10 and is 95% English learner.)
OTOH, one of our neighbors has a 6th grader, and he was NOT challenged in 5th, for a couple of reasons. He got the "weaker" 5th grade teacher and there weren't as many advanced kids in his class (he was the only one). It seems like they go in waves. With the open transfer policy, there are some grades where parents transfer out right off the bat. But other years there is not space, and they are "stuck". In our school, so far, this year it seems like the grade entering 6th is weaker. But 5th, 4th, and 3rd are really strong.
I live in CA, and appearance is *very* important to people. I have to say, I've gotten many pitying looks from parents when they find out the school we attend. For reference, the school rankings:
A: 9/10 (GATE magnet part of this school)
B: 9/10
C: 8/10
D: 6/10
E: 5/10 (the school my son attends, which is also the magnet program for the disabled)
F: 4/10 (the crunchy alternative school)
G: 4/10 (the Spanish immersion alternative school)
H: 3/10
I: 3/10
J: 3/10
K: 3/10
L: 2/10 (our home school)
H-L are predominantly Latino and English learner and poor by demographics.
There's no reason for pity. I don't quite understand it.