I use Rails 3.0.4 and RSpec 2.5. In my controllers I use named scopes heavily, for example
@collection = GuestbookEntry.nonreplies.bydate.inclusive.paginate(
This problem has bugged me for a while too!
I believe the reason the behaviour is different from Rails 2 is because the query is no longer being performed during the variable assignment in the controller. Instead, it's lazy-loaded as required.
I agree with Mark Wilden that it's better to wrap all of these scopes in a larger scope and spec that in your model. This scope clearly has a specific function, so just as one would spec the behaviour of a method which calls several other methods, you would spec the behaviour of a scope that joins several other scopes.