Discussion concerns traits of high risk elementary school students, the psychology of learning, what is to be avoided by those working in early intervention programs, and qualifications for teachers who work with parents and young children to reduce the size of the at-risk student population. It is argued that these teachers should have adequate course work in educational psychology, philosophy of education, sociology, anthropology, oral and written communication, liberal arts, history of education, research methodology, curriculum, supervision, and teaching. Teachers working with parents should also have appropriate field experience. Trivia in objectives, guess work in selecting learning opportunities, and evaluation techniques that lack validity and reliability should be avoided. A psychological, and not merely logical, curriculum in which the learner selects learning activities on the basis of interest, meaning, and self-fulfillment can be balanced with measurement-driven instruction to provide an optimal sequence of learning activities by means of which at-risk students can make progress. (RH)