?
 SK> Basically in fifth grade he learns that he doesn't 
 SK> understand fractions,
 SK> he feels frustration and probably fears that this 
 SK> is a complicated topic
 SK> that he is likely to experience difficulty with forever, and then he
 SK> sees it again in sixth grade. What attitudes and expectations is he
 SK> bringing with him to the sixth grade math classroom with regard to
 SK> fractions? I'd bet he has an instant disadvantage for having been
 SK> exposed to them unsuccessfully the previous year.
Looking back at my 12 years as a fifth grade teacher, I cannot remember any 
student that knew the basic facts that could not grasp fractions.  What you 
said above is exactly true in my experience.
 SK> Seems to me that, just as students shouldn't leave third grade without
 SK> knowing how to read, and call in the RR teacher and other intervention
 SK> methods, kids shouldn't leave second grade without knowing their basic
 SK> addition and subtraction facts nor third without 
 SK> knowing multiplication.
 SK> Get intervention for these kids, what... a Math Facts Recovery
 SK> teacher?...and get them set up for success in math in fourth and fifth
 SK> grade instead of re-hashing basic material they should have already
 SK> learned.
If these facts were taught with proper effective methods, there would be no 
need for rework (which is often very expensive).  If one teacher has a method 
that works better than the others in use, then, IMO, everyone should be 
teaching that way.  Teachers need to work together for the benefit of the 
students, (and maybe swallowing some "professional pride"?).
 SK> think that to allow the kids longer than that does them a terrible
 SK> disservice and sets them up to do poorly in subsequent classes.
And this is the greatest area of discrimination as the poorer student with 
the bad home will not survive in a school set up this way--he/she is doomed 
to failure.
--- Maximus 2.02
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