Journal for the Education of the Gifted

This article describes a study designed to examine the relationship of tutoring in specific reading comprehension strategies to gains in reading achievement for children enrolled in self contained classrooms for gifted students from low-income, culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and heterogeneous with respect to reading achievement. Participants were 58 students in grades 3–5, including 12 English learners. Eleven adult tutors received training in decoding and 3 basic and 3 higher level reading comprehension strategies consistent with the district's reading program and adapted to include increasing levels of challenge and support for English learners. Scores on a standardized reading achievement test and an assessment of reading fluency served as outcome measures. Findings suggest that tutoring in decoding and higher level reading comprehension strategies supported gains in reading achievement. Gifted students who are English learners appear to benefit from tutoring in decoding and the full range of lower and higher level reading comprehension strategies.

The purpose of this study was to identify whether gifted adolescents' academic, general, and emotional stability self concepts would increase or decrease during time spent in a residential summer program for the gifted. Gender and previous summer program participation were also examined as potential moderators. Participants included 140 gifted adolescents enrolled in a 3-week summer program. Self concept was measured using the Self-Description Questionnaire II (Marsh, 1990). Results were analyzed using a series of repeated measures ANOVAs. Application of the results, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.

Gifted students report that they are often perceived differently than nonidentified students (Cross, Coleman, & Stewart, 1993); thus, they employ social coping strategies to manipulate the visibility of their giftedness. The Social Coping Questionnaire (SCQ; Swiatek, 1995) was designed to assess these strategies. This study's purpose was to examine the SCQ's factor structure with a sample of 600 younger (grades 5–7) and older (grades 8–11) gifted boys and girls in the U.S. and determine the tenability of the factor structure across age and gender groups. Participants' scores were randomly assigned to either exploratory factor analysis (EFA) or confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Findings from EFA were tested with CFA. Together, these analyses revealed 6 factors. Factor loading patterns from multigroup analyses indicated differences between age and gender groups, and suggested that future investigations of gifted students' social coping strategies include careful examination of the data for factor structure changes that are unique to the sample.

This article addresses considerations for assessment and intervention planning in serving twice-exceptional preschool children. The authors propose blending recommended assessment practices in early childhood gifted education and early childhood special education in a comprehensive assessment process. In doing so, unique needs of twice-exceptional preschool children may be better met. Interviewing family members and other caregivers to determine strengths and needs in daily routines and observing young children in play are two practices that provide critical information about the preschool child's developmental status, family priorities, and daily life. The authors conclude that routines-based assessment (RBA) and play-based assessment (PBA) provide perspectives that standardized assessments alone cannot provide and that RBA and PBA may be especially effective in identifying and subsequently meeting the needs of twice-exceptional preschool children.