What does it take to save a student? Every year, hundreds of thousands of teenagers in the United States quit high school without diplomas — an epidemic so out of control that nobody knows the exact number. What is clear is that massive dropout rates cripple individual career prospects and cloud the country’s future. At Houston’s Sharpstown High, once a notorious “dropout factory,” a high-stakes experiment is underway to rescue students from the edge. FRONTLINE spent a semester immersed in Sharpstown High to produce an unforgettable portrait of four students in crisis and the teachers, counselors and principal waging a daily, personal struggle to get them to graduation. A troubling and inspiring journey through the maze of an inner-city high school, “Dropout Nation” investigates the causes, challenges, and potential solutions of a national emergency.

Examine the medical, ethical and financial challenges of containing runaway healthcare spending. MONEY AND MEDICINE, in addition to illuminating the so-called waste and overtreatment that pervade our medical system, explores promising ways to reduce healthcare expenditures while improving the overall quality of medical care. With candor and poignancy, the documentary captures the painful end-of-life treatment choices made by patients and their families, ranging from aggressive interventions in the ICU to palliative care at home. The film also investigates the controversy surrounding diagnostic testing and screening, as well as the shocking treatment variations among patients undergoing an assortment of elective procedures. MONEY AND MEDICINE provides a timely contribution to the debate over healthcare reform and deficit reduction that is heating up as the 2012 presidential election approaches.

For much of the 20th century, Carl Sandburg was synonymous with the American experience, a spokesman on behalf of “the people.” Using his unique life — from impoverished beginnings on the Illinois prairie to the halls of Congress to “The Ed Sullivan Show” — as the basis for free-verse poetry, Sandburg became one of the most successful writers in the English language: a three-time Pulitzer Prize-winner, biographer (most notably of Abraham Lincoln), children’s storyteller, novelist and captivating performer. Yet, after his death in 1967, his literary legacy faded and his poems, once taught in schools across America, were dismissed under the weight of massive critical attack. AMERICAN MASTERS provides a dynamic examination into the life, work and controversy surrounding Sandburg, exposing his radical politics and anarchist writing during WWI as well as the burgeoning resurgence of interest in him and his contributions.

This week on MARKET WARRIORS, our pickers (Miller, John, Bob and Kevin) return to one of the largest markets in the world, the Brimfield Antique Show in Brimfield, MA. As off-screen host Mark L. Walberg describes, they scour the 16 fields of vendors in search of the best piece of art pottery. Some notable picks include a Rookwood vase and a painted blanket chest. In this week’s episode, one picker is drawn to an item that will bring them great rewards while another buys a forgery that will cause them to second-guess their knowledge. Later in the episode, the pickers team up (Bob and Kevin against John and Miller) in a round to buy an object to re-sell it the same day. Their finds go under the hammer at Cowan's Auction in Cincinnati, Ohio.

This week on MARKET WARRIORS, our pickers (Miller, John, Bob and Kevin) head to the Midwest for one of the largest shows in the region, the Springfield Extravaganza in Springfield, OH. Once there our pickers are challenged to sift through the 2,000 vendors to find the best piece of cast iron to sell at auction. Off-screen host Mark L. Walberg describes some unique picks including a Jazzboy Jim toy, a Salvador Dali lithograph, and a pair of chairs made of skis. Their finds are auctioned at A.N. Abell Auction Company in Los Angeles.

An escapee from a psychiatric hospital sets fire to a flock of geese and then incinerates a passing hiker. And he’s far from finished. While investigating, Wallander is unexpectedly visited by Anna, an old friend of his estranged daughter, Linda (Jeany Spark, “Sherlock”). Then Anna disappears. As more arson attacks occur, it appears that Anna may be connected and that Wallander must reconcile with Linda and join forces to find Anna at all costs. Father-daughter concord is hardly helped by Linda’s memory that her dad once had an affair with Anna’s mother.

A raft adrift in Swedish waters holds a grisly cargo: two dead Latvians who have been horribly tortured. Arriving to investigate from Riga, Latvia’s capital, is an enigmatic police major. He reports back to headquarters and then disappears. After learning of the major’s death, Wallander goes to Riga and meets his widow, Kristina (Rebekah Staton, “Tess of the D’Urbervilles”). Together, they become embroiled in a desperate search for files that may document high-level corruption that threatens to make Wallander and Kristina the next torture victims — and corpses.

American Graduate Day is a multi-platform event featuring a live television broadcast, radio playlist with premiere documentaries, and participation from over 20 national partner organizations to spotlight solutions to the nation’s dropout crisis. Viewers and listeners will be encouraged to become an “American Graduate Champion” by offering their time, donating resources, connecting with the organizations on social media or learning more about the crisis. Broadcast nationally from The Tisch WNET Studios at Lincoln Center in New York City.

A majority of Italian-Americans can trace their roots to southern Italy; for many, Visions of Italy will be a first look at the small villages of Il Mezzogiorno ("the midday") — Puglia, Abruzzi, Basilicata, Campania, Calabria — their ancestors left generations ago, in many ways unchanged by time. The helicopter flies over the most popular destinations in southern Italy — the romance of the Amalfi Coast (and the hairpin turns of the Amalfi Drive!); the bustling international seaport of Naples and the jewels among its islands, Ischia and Capri; the majesty of Vesuvius; the ruins of Pompeii; Rome’s Scalinata di Piazza di Spagna (Spanish Steps) and Colosseum — but the program’s flight also reveals extraordinary sights that don’t make most itineraries.

Celtic Thunder takes a journey through the varying styles of Celtic and Irish music, from old and traditional standards such as Lagan Love and Maid of Culmore to more contemporary, modern Irish songs, Past The Point of Rescue, Ride On and All Day Long, stopping at lively ensembles Galway Girl and a tribute to the Clancy Brothers in the Clancy Brother Medley along the way. It is also the first Celtic Thunder show where all of the artists play different instruments.