I considered mentioning in my first post that the school's behavior does not maximize overall learning because such a large portion of the students are at/above

I considered mentioning in my first post that the school's behavior does not maximize overall learning because such a large portion of the students are at/above grade level. It is possible that their method of teaching the below-grade level students is consistent with maximizing learning for those students. I would think that for students who are behind, you would want to increase engagement/fun in order to increase the likelihood of maximizing learning in the long run. If you just wanted to get their scores up that year, you might focus more on drills instead.