The curricular recommendations of the current educational-reform movement are discussed and their likely effects on at-risk youth are considered. Current reform efforts tend to focus on three major curricular changes: (1) increase the number of academic courses required to graduate from high school; (2) increase the time for education; and (3) end social promotion and promote on the basis of achievement. A look at the probable effects of these reforms suggests that increasing academic requirements will serve only to penalize at-risk youth and that increasing the time devoted to learning will have only modest effects, if any, on their achievement. Research suggests that retaining at-risk students is likely only to waste an additional year. More effective alternatives would include a quality curriculum that emphasizes critical thinking and problem solving and has relevance to the life experiences of the student. Improved instructional technology, which includes appropriate teaching methods, would benefit at-risk students in particular. Field learning would provide experiential knowledge that could facilitate broad development for marginal students. (Contains 29 references.) (SLD)