Page Order for pages does not seem to be working

I have quite a few “Pages” within WordPress. They are organized in the admin module according to the page order selection box that appears on the page management screen. In version 2.1 that function still displays but the pages are not in any recognizable order. It seems the pages appear in a fairly random order. Anyone else find this problem? IS this a bug or something I am missing?

The page order is very helpful in keeping my pages organized from an administrative point of view.