we say grouping students by "ability" but don't we just wind up grouping students by correlated variables like gender, race, socioeconomic status, geographic lo

we say grouping students by "ability" but don't we just wind up grouping students by correlated variables like gender, race, socioeconomic status, geographic location ? the equality of education and allocation of other resources is not homogenous and it would be wrong to assume it was. in these hard times, we notice more the disconnect between the topics we are learning in school and the jobs/careers they are supposed to prepare for.