Katelyn'sMom, I love Ruf and her book has really helped me stay grounded through all this. Her outlines and observations are incredibly helpful.
But, there are some really important things to keep in mind. First, her observations were retrospective. She did not look at all kids that were reading at 2 and then follow them forward to see where they ended up. She took kids that were clearly gifted at school age and looked backward. Therefore to apply her data forward is probably not completely fair.
Second, there is a qualitative approach to her work that I found really useful, but at the same time, inherently not quantifiable. I think that the kids she worked with had certain qualities that were hard to define (by scores or developmental ability) that were responsible for much of their placement. If you are a numbers person and want one to one corelation between test score or developmental milestones and Ruf level, you are going to get frustrated. As a counselor, I have great respect for the "gut feeling" of another professional, but I understand it is not always going to be possible to quantify that.
So unless you work with her or one of her students, I would take any placement you get from Ruf's book as just that "rough."
