Q: My fourth-grader, Karina, has way more homework this year than last year. She works hard on it, but despite the time spent, doesn't always remember what she studies. Any suggestions?

A: Schools focus on the content that students should learn, but very little on cognitive skills such as time management and study strategies to make sure that the learning "sticks."

Data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) show that teaching cognitive strategies works. Students who use cognitive skills the most "to understand and remember what they read, such as underlining important parts of the texts or discussing what they read with other people, perform at least 73 points higher in the PISA assessment -- that is, one full proficiency level or nearly two full school years -- than students who use these strategies the least," the group's report stated.

Unfortunately, "we don't often teach helpful 'cerebral' strategies, such as visualizing time, taking notes and sequencing events," says Donna Goldberg, a learning coach and author of "The Organized Student" (Fireside, 2005).

Ask yourself what key cerebral strategies Karina can learn, and which she might already be using. Does she use what she already knows about a topic to learn new material? Ask herself questions as she reads? Draw pictures or diagrams to develop understanding? Discuss the subject with others to clarify new concepts? Practice material several times to build understanding? Make notes on things she doesn't understand to ask the teacher? Review an assignment before moving on? Organize her time to be most efficient?

Does Karina see the big picture in what she's studying? "Some teachers fail to tell students what they'll be learning during the year," says Goldberg. "They tell how they'll grade and what the class rules are, but don't say, 'This year we'll study ancient history: We'll start with Mesopotamia, then Egypt, Greece and Rome.' Teachers who explain the game plan, and with each lesson place the topic in the context of the curriculum's broader goal, really help students retain the material much more effectively. You can help reinforce the big picture with Karina."

Another thing to check is her understanding of time. "Parents assume that because kids can tell time that they can manage it," says Goldberg. "Kids can tell you, for example, that it's 12:30 -- lunchtime -- but can't gauge how long it will take to eat or the time left before next class or until study period."

Goldberg recommends students use a paper planner to manage time. "The tool makes time visible," she says. "It captures activities, assignments and deadlines in one place. It allows a student to block out both study and personal time; keep track of immediate deadlines and pace long-term projects; gauge how long things take and calculate time needed to complete a project."

The Time Timer (timetimer.com) can help make time real for some students, says Goldberg. Another good tool is the My-Time Kid's Planner (mytimekidsplanner.com), a large magnetic, dry-erase scheduling board.

If Karina doesn't grasp these strategies immediately, don't worry, says Goldberg. "What's important is that you've started a dialogue. Reinforce (the techniques) with her, by doing things such as checking the planner. Soon, she'll see their benefits and start using them."

(Do you have a question about your child's education? Email it to Leanna@aplusadvice.com. Leanna Landsmann is an education writer who began her career as a classroom teacher. She has served on education commissions, visited classrooms in 49 states to observe best practices, and founded Principal for a Day in New York City.)

Q: It's time for our parent teacher organization to stop sending paper newsletters home, but the president is worried that going digital will cause legal problems and exclude some parents. Haven't most schools crossed this bridge?

A: Thanks to the swift migration to Internet-connected mobile devices and broadband access at home, many schools have increased the quality and frequency of communication with parents by going digital. Data shows that parents appreciate it.

Parent leaders aren't just converting their printed missives, which are often lost in the backpack, into e-newsletters; they are using a range of tools to increase information flow and engagement, including social media, online surveys, customized school websites and wikis that invite parents reviews, and apps.

Knapp Elementary in Lansdale, Pa., is a great model, according to Tim Sullivan, publisher of PTOtoday.com, a website for parents that offers advice and resources.

"Their Home and School Association (HSA) surveyed parents at back-to-school night and learned that 94 percent of families were able to access email or texts," he says. "They formed the Knapp Family Engagement Team to create a technology plan to reach out to parents."

Knapp principal Joe Mazza says it was all about "listening to parents, soliciting their feedback and responding." Mazza offers technology-training sessions for teachers and parents on how to use Twitter and other communication formats.

To avoid legal problems, district guidelines are followed closely. To protect privacy, children's names are never used and parents can opt out by signing a digital communications refusal form.

Knapp Elementary's HSA outreach program is so successful that PTO Today gave it the Judges' Choice Parent Group of the Year award for 2013.

What got the judges' attention?

-- Knapp HSA's e-book newsletter takes much less time to prepare and distribute than its paper predecessor, and the program can track response. "The click-through rate has increased from 60 to 200 readers, and growing. For a 600-student, K-5 school, that's impressive engagement," notes Sullivan.

-- Many teachers tweet what's going on in their classrooms. Parents follow posts on Twitter or on the school's website. "They might describe the day's science experiment or book chat," says Sullivan. "The tweets not only inform parents; they start conversations. Rather than ask, 'What did you do in school today?' a parent can say, 'I see you learned to count by twos! Show me how that's done.' Several teachers tweeted over the summer, keeping kids focused on learning and generating excitement for the coming school year."

-- HSA meetings, held in different places throughout the community, are live streamed using AnyMeeting, a free videoconferencing tool.

-- The Family Engagement Team created a mobile Knapp App to make it easy for parents to email staff and HSA officers. Parents find links to photos taken at school, the e-newsletter, school calendar, podcasts from student clubs and important resources (such a tool to report bullying). The Knapp Elementary app is free on iOS and Android platforms.

"These efforts don't replace face-to-face interaction," says Sullivan. "They expand busy parents' access to school news, events and policies. They can increase interaction by giving parents more insight into their children's class activities and inspiring them to come to school for visits."

(Do you have a question about your child's education? Email it to Leanna@aplusadvice.com. Leanna Landsmann is an education writer who began her career as a classroom teacher. She has served on education commissions, visited classrooms in 49 states to observe best practices, and founded Principal for a Day in New York City.)

Q: My daughter just started universal pre-kindergarten (UPK). At the open house, her teacher told us about new standards for our state and begged parents to help kids at home with skills. Single working parents like me don't have time or resources. This is the teacher's job. Does what I do at home really matter?

A: It matters. The teacher's delivery may have been awkward -- the new Common Core State Standards have many educators scrambling -- but research backs her up.

A parent's time and attention -- especially in early language development and setting expectations for success in school -- are powerful tools that can boost a kindergartner's academic success.

"Given all the roiling debates about how America's children should be taught, it may come as a surprise to learn that students spend less than 15 percent of their time in school," says Annie Murphy Paul, author of "The Brilliant Report," a popular newsletter on learning. She also has a forthcoming book, "Brilliant: The New Science of Smart" (Crown, 2014).

"While there's no doubt that school is important," she says, "a clutch of recent studies reminds us that parents are even more so."

Parents "don't need to buy expensive educational toys or digital devices for their kids in order to give them an edge. They don't need to chauffeur their offspring to enrichment classes or test-prep courses," says Murphy Paul. "What they need to do with their children is much simpler: talk."

But not just any talk. Murphy Paul points to research from psychology professor Susan Levine at the University of Chicago that shows "children who hear talk about counting and numbers at home start school with much more extensive mathematical knowledge that predicts future achievement in the subject.

"The amount of talk young children hear about the spatial properties of the physical world -- how big or small or round or sharp objects are -- predicts kids' problem-solving abilities as they prepare to enter kindergarten."

A 1995 landmark study by Betty Hart and Todd Risley found that professional parents talk more to their children than less-affluent parents, creating a 30 million "word gap" by the time children reach age 3.

"More recent research is refining our sense of exactly what kinds of talk at home foster children's success at school," says Murphy Paul. She points to one study showing that two-way adult-child conversations "were six times as potent in promoting language development as interludes in which the adult did all the talking.

"Engaging in this reciprocal back-and-forth gives children a chance to try out language for themselves, and also gives them the sense that their thoughts and opinions matter."

Don't underestimate the benefits of reading to your daughter for a few minutes each day. Reading aloud helps children build word-sound awareness, stimulates language and cognitive skills, and develops vocabulary and print knowledge. It also builds motivation, curiosity, memory and gives a child a chance to practice listening -- a critical learning skill. If all that weren't enough, a shared book at bedtime with your daughter will help her learn to love reading throughout her lifetime.

(Do you have a question about your child's education? Email it to Leanna@aplusadvice.com. Leanna Landsmann is an education writer who began her career as a classroom teacher. She has served on education commissions, visited classrooms in 49 states to observe best practices, and founded Principal for a Day in New York City.)