I think it is the philosophy of this curriculum where they go very, very slowly to build the foundation, that's what the district tells the parents who question it anyway. The don't do accelerated work in the enrichment pull-out (my DD's not it in but I know alot about it) and the school has a policy of keeping all the kids on the same page with math within the classroom.
Many parents have been and gone before me with this issue, with more degrees and better advocacy skills than me, who are pretty enraged that their 5th graders are still counting on their fingers...and they've had a really hard time with the district, so I don't even go there...
Right now I'm trying to focus on why DD has only gained two grade levels in reading in 4 years and has such low rapid naming scores (16th percentile) and low math fluency on her university study test (they don't interpret, and the school kicked back the data and won't respond to it). They're setting up to NOT be cooperative, I can just tell.
Meanwhile, I do know that she really loves big, huge interesting math concepts, we just have to get through these elementary years! It's cool that your DS understood the concept of the math rankings.
