The primary motivation for holding back students _was_ gender/race concerns. It's plainly stated in the GP's linked document and in many other documents on the CA education "reforms" that differentiating students into different tracks is supposedly racist.
> What you described has been happening long before anyone cared about gender and race
No, it hasn't. State standardized testing has lowered standards, but individual school districts have always been free to move advanced students onto a faster track. I don't know of any high performing school district that actually cared about standardized testing results, because their students were so overprepared for the state tests it didn't matter.
> being rejected by Harvard has had on Asian people, and I say this as an Asian person
I see you're not familiar with the history of American discrimination towards Asians. Maybe we do need some education in our schools on racism against Asians to teach people like you? You should start with the Wikipedia article on the Chinese Exclusion Act and go from there. I don't see how you can compare gay bashing to literal concentration camps, systemic bans on Chinese immigration, and indentured servitude of Chinese railroad workers.
> I say this as an Asian person
Would you feel the same if you worked your ass off and got rejected but saw people with inferior achievements around you get accepted because of their skin color? If I was your boss and I promoted your black coworker over you because of his skin color wouldn't you be mad? Don't dismiss the hard work of millions of high school students applying to college with a simple "being rejected by Harvard".