Careful Consideration Method

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The Careful Consideration Method for Identifying High Ability Readers

The purpose of the Advanced Readers at Risk Program, a Utah Javits Gifted and Talented Education Act program, was to identify and serve high ability readers throughout the state of Utah.

The identification method used in the program was called the “Careful Consideration Method”.  It involved giving careful consideration to all relevant data in finding and serving high ability readers. Criteria was established for standardized tests, criterion-referenced tests, informal reading inventories, and research-based teacher rating scales which teachers used in determining whether or not a particular student was identified as a high ability reader.

Advanced or high ability readers for the project were defined as those students who met one or more of the following criteria.

  • a score at or above the 75th percentile on the verbal portion of a standardized aptitude test.
  • A grade equivalent score more than one year ahead of current grade level on the reading portion (total reading score) of a standardized achievement test or on an informal reading inventory.
  • A consistent pattern (3 years or more) over the academic career or performance at the highest levels (advanced or beyond proficient) on the state of Utah end-of-level criterion referenced test
  • A rating of 90% or more on a teacher observation checklist of characteristics of advanced readers. (Scales for Rating the Behavioral Characteristics of Superior Students, (Renzulli, 1983)

** The SRBCSS was given in order to help teachers look for those students not identified through the other measures (a-c) but whom teachers believe might possibly be identified as an advanced (high ability) reader.

Most importantly:

  1. Any ONE measure could qualify the student as and “Advanced (High Ability) Reader”
  2. There was NO LIMIT on the number of students in a given classroom who could qualify as an “Advanced (high ability) Reader”.

For more information see: Hunsaker, S.L.,Nielsen, A. Bartlett, B. (2010) Correlates of teacher practices influencing student outcomes in reading instruction for advanced readers. Gifted Child Quarterly, 54, 273-282.