ABSTRACT
In the parlance of the gifted literature, the term service delivery options is used in referring to the options that describe organizational structures such as the settings and/or student groupings that school districts create to facilitate the delivery of advanced curriculum and instruction to gifted students. The grouping controversy surrounding program models has long been debated in gifted education and general education with the benefits to gifted and possible detriments to other students forming the core of the debates. Programming models, on the other hand, are organized, articulated, holistic approaches to delivering services to gifted students. Programming models often also specify appropriate methods for identifying the students to be served by the model and provide guidelines for effective implementation of the model. Effective programming decisions are based upon the school's definition of gifted and the resulting learning characteristics of the population of identified gifted students.
