When I review books, I examine the book for a) what it claims to be and b) who the target audience is (for instance, I won't fault an Arthur book for simplistic language and a stale plot, just as I won't fault a Defoe work for showcasing poor morals). So let's examine this book on both fronts:

What it claims to be (from the blurb on the back):
"Serving Gifted Students Within An RtI Framework is a practical book that provides an overview of RtI models in gifted education and describes specific details about developing levels of service, monitoring student progress, differentiating curriculum at each tier, and collaborating with gifted educators."

First of all, it isn't very practical; it's Spartan. It doesn't develop any of its more useful (practical) points and instead elaborates on the minutiae ad nauseum. Most of the first two chapters is stuff that you should have learned in your education programs if you are a teacher or administrator (i.e. the history of special education, NCLB legislation, and CCSS legislation). No one really needs to know the /history/ of these things; you just need to know how it applies to teaching and how it affects you and your students...the /practical/ stuff.

"specific details about developing level of service" - Yeah, no. There was almost none of that. It explains what each of the tier levels are and how students progress from one level to the next, but not a whole lot of what goes on IN each level and certainly not how to develop instruction in each level.

"monitoring student progress" - Yes, it details this. And doesn't shut up about it. This is what I think is primarily wrong with education; everything gets reduced down to data and assessment. The prevailing thought seems to be that these aren't students; they are widgets that we are churning out of a factory. "What are our quarterly gains and losses?" These are not statistics; these are CHILDREN. Children whose futures depend on US!

"differentiating curriculum at each tier" - It gave more or less three options: send the kid to a gifted class, skip them ahead a grade, or ship them off to early college classes. Thank you for those useful tidbits. There was a very brief bullet list of seven ideas to help differentiate (embed creative problem solving, ask higher level questions, adding depth and complexity to the content). This is no-brainer stuff you should be differentiating for ALL your students, anyway.

"collaborating with gifted educators" - This is helpful...to an extent. It talks about the responsibilities of each person in the school as far as RtI goes and some ideas on how to collaborate. The problem here is that, as an individual, you have almost no control over that. For example, at my school, we have only a part-time guidance counselor, a literacy coach who has "checked out", no mathematics intervention program to speak of, an overworked vice principal, grade-level partners who have little to do with one another, special education teachers who are bogged down with the students that the law requires them to focus their attention on, etc. I need to know more about what I can do, as an individual, to help my students. I have to be able to prepare for the inevitability that I'll be doing it on my own. How do I handle that kind of situation?

As for target audience:
If it's meant for teachers...good luck. A lot of what it discusses (the necessary school resources, what kinds of staff to hire, scheduling, curriculum, etc.) is completely out of the teacher's hand.
If it's meant for administrators...I really hope that they'd be looking into a book that sounds a lot less like one of my graduate research papers and more like a /professionally/ written book.

As for the niggling little things that get to me when I read:
This book was drier than a saltine in the desert. Holy crap, I can't believe I was actually able to get through it in two sittings without falling asleep!

The authors needed a bit more consistency. They went back and forth between referring to nonspecific students as "she/he" and "she." This is educational research; educational research goes by APA formatting which frowns on gender specific pronouns. They should have just used the indefinite "the student." ( )

I had hoped to find a well thought-out plan for gifted students in an Rtl Framework that would be suitable for parents, however this was a very tedious read that only an academic would enjoy. There were some good points made, however, in clearly pointing out that out education system could benefit by recognizing the need for intervention for gifted students as well as struggling students. The concept is sound. ( )

I didn't like this book. It read like an academic paper, not a guide or a how-to. I found it too technical to enjoy and found it hard-to-read. ( )

This book does an excellent job of breaking down what the RtI process is and the many ways it can be implemented. Federal law mandates in each state require individual learning for each student to meet his or her individual needs. There are 3 separate levels of the process. The main prevention level includes high instruction. The second level includes evidence-based intervention(s) of moderate intensity. And if that does not meet the needs of the child then final prevention level includes individualized intervention for students who don't show enough advancement.

Most of the time it seems that this type of intervention is used for students below level, as it shows such promise, especially with the use of programs such as MAP testing. There are gifted students with disabilities, and/or these methods can and should be used with those above average as well.
This book has a 2012 copyright, and has the latest facts and figures, as well as useful online resources and a directory of state models. Good choice for teachers and administrators to learn more, or to help with their lesson planning. ( )

Serving Gifted Students Within an RtI Framework discusses how to implement interventions under the RtI Framework for gifted children and for twice-exceptional children. The first chapters discuss RtI in general, while the later chapters discuss it in the context of gifted children. The authors provide many references and an appendix of state-by-state implementation.

The book is well written for the professional educator, not for parents. The sources would prove invaluable to anyone wishing to study this topic in more depth.

Unfortunately, by about chapter 3, I was ready to throw the book across the room. At some point, the authors make a comment to the effect that general education teachers do not like to differentiate among their students. They also suggest that teachers should be writing at least 3 sets of lesson plans -- for grade-level, advanced, and below-grade students, with the below-grade students having more individualize assignments and 20 per class of small group instruction. Excuse me? I have 44 students in 5 classes for a total of 220 students. I teach two different math subjects. Unless I gave up sleeping altogether, there is no way, even using all the weekend, that I could keep up with the authors' suggestions, normal grading, additional testing that they recommend, collaboration, and their recommended professional development. Their suggestions are totally unrealistic for high school teachers.

Most of my frustration with this book can easily be summarized by the author mini-bios on the back cover. Rollins -- PhD and professor in Dept. of Educational Psychology. Sulak -- PhD candidate in Educational Psychology. Rollins -- professional counselor in private practice. How many of these people have taught recently in high schools?

Overall, this might be a good book for elementary school teachers or secondary teachers with small classes of gifted students. For high school teachers, I would suggest passing on this book. ( )