The commercial exploitation of curriculum creates an anti-intellectual emphasis spawning a trade school mentality to secure jobs and a consumptionist drive to purchase status goods. Safeguards are needed, including disclosure labeling of corporate sponsorship, alternative instructional materials sources, improved teacher and student training, and…

The antidote to corporate propaganda in the classroom is a critical view. Any material (corporate, activist, or otherwise) written with a propaganda or public relations slant can become educational only in the hands of teachers striving to engender critical awareness and independent thinking. (MLH)

Once corporate-sponsored material gets into the classroom, teachers can use it to teach critical thinking skills, such as analyzing and drawing conclusions from statistics and graphs; identifying and labeling examples of bias, propaganda, and racial and sex stereotyping; detecting and recording fallacies; and identifying "pro" and "con" arguments.…

The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development has developed model guidelines ensuring that potential school-business relationships are based on sound educational values, serve clear educational purposes, and unambiguously promote student welfare. Establishing ground rules for structuring business involvement with policy and programs…

Reviews research on instructional practices that help at-risk students. The programs reviewed fall into three general categories: prevention programs at the primary level, classroom change programs, and supplementary/remedial programs. Lists general features that characterize these programs. (TE)

By providing immediate intensive interventions when learning problems occur, the Success for All program has improved the achievement of students at an innercity Baltimore elementary school. (TE)

A coordinated effort by all segments of society, led by the schools, can decrease the number of dropouts, increasing the chances that more young people will lead productive lives. Included is a list of sources of dropout prevention activities. (TE)

The Phoenix Curriculum for Students, a motivational program developed by the Phoenix Educational Foundation, is designed to help teachers provide both knowledge and self-esteem to students by gaining an understanding of their potential and an appreciation of themselves. (TE)

Dynamic teachers and principals have gone past the slogans of reform to achieve outstanding results with at-risk students, and their pioneering work points to promising directions for others. (Author/TE)

Early evidence indicates that, contrary to what many educators fear, current efforts to raise standards are having a beneficial effect on at-risk students. (Author/TE)

Educators can motivate students to achieve if they fulfill students' needs for competence, extrinsic rewards, intrinsic interest, social support, and sense of ownership. (Author/TE)

One California high school is motivating at-risk students by giving them the opportunity to produce school publications. (Author/TE)

To break the cycle of alienation experienced by students and teachers in urban schools, we must accompany calls for order and high expectations with respect and relevance for students and professionalism for teachers. (Author/TE)

An interview with Jaime Escalante, the determined teacher-hero of the movie "Stand and Deliver," and winner of many prestigious teaching awards including the Presidential Medal for Excellence in Education, in recognition of his successes with at-risk students in East Los Angeles. (TE)

After installing a Computer Assisted Instruction system, officials in Escambia County, Florida, are decreasing the high dropout rate and giving at-risk students the skills to survive in the work world. (Author/TE)