Q: What's happening with the Common Core? Our principal says that it's been implemented in our state, and teachers like it and the students are doing better. But a PTO parent says that the federal government passed a new law to dismantle it. Who's right?

A: Misconceptions about Common Core State Standards (CCSS) die hard. "The feds have never been in charge of standards and they still aren't. That's a state role," says Peter Cunningham, the executive director of Chicago-based nonprofit Education Post and supporter of Common Core. "We've always had standards. These (CCSS) are just more rigorous and better."

These standards were created by the states -- with private dollars -- not the federal government. What prompted the states to do this? Too many students graduating high school weren't ready for college. So states joined together to improve the "college and career readiness" of U.S. students. Over several years, thousands of parents, teachers, researchers, subject-area specialists as well as business, civic, military and policy leaders of all political stripes weighed in. The result is the Common Core. To date, 42 states have adopted CCSS.

Cunningham tracks education trends across the nation for educationpost.org. He finds that "teachers like the new standards because they give them plenty of freedom to teach the way they want and they really encourage critical thinking. The standards are not about rote learning."

He also points out that parents have exacting academic standards for their kids "and they see the benefit of having 'common' standards across state lines."

Louisiana educator Courtney A. Brown explains her support on educationpost.org: "With normalized standards across the country, a child in rural South Dakota is expected to meet the same standards as a child in upstate New York."

An August 2015 Education Post survey evaluated parents' top priorities for their kids' schools. The survey showed that 66 percent of participants support "implementing Common Standards" and 76 percent support "creating higher standards and a more challenging curriculum" in the schools. A plurality of parents think Common Core is working or should be given time to improve.

A May 2015 Education Next survey shows that those who favor the Common Core continue to outnumber opponents by 14 percentage points. The report notes that "the broader public's opposition to the Common Core appears to rest on a shallow factual foundation. Asked whether or not the Common Core is being used in their local school district, fully 58 percent of the members of the public admit that they do not know ... perhaps more startling, 24 percent of residents in states that do not have the Common Core believe their districts are using the standards."

A federal bill that was signed into law last year, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), "prohibits the federal government from mandating Common Core," says Cunningham. "This is essentially meaningless because the federal government was already prohibited from mandating standards. The new law does require rigorous, high standards that prepare students for college and work. So it's all the same thing."

Educator and scholar Dr. Chester Finn challenges folks to actually read the CCSS and find "anything there they don't think kids would be better off learning."

For more information, go to corestandards.org.

(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: Our elementary school principal emailed parents about a new program that teaches "self-regulation." He wants to give the kids grades on it. Why spend school time teaching behavior, when that's the parents' job?

A: Schools have long reinforced parental efforts to teach good behavior, comportment, social graces, manners -- whatever you want to call it.

What's new is an effort to add "noncognitive skills" to the 3 R's. These include setting and achieving goals, showing empathy, establishing positive relationships, making responsible decisions, and self-regulation: being able to exercise self-control, make good choices and exhibit social competence.

Why spend school time on them? Research shows that self-control in childhood is a strong predictor of adult success. It plays a big role in academic achievement, health and happiness.

Professor Daniel Willingham, a cognitive scientist and professor at the University of Virginia, says a recent report from Transforming Education makes the case for administrators to include these noncognitive skills in the school day. The findings should also interest parents who want their children to make a successful transition to adulthood.

Students who learn self-regulation early:

-- have greater K-12 and college academic achievement.

-- are less likely to commit a crime and be incarcerated as adults.

-- are less likely to be a single or unplanned teenage parent.


-- enjoy higher adult earning and greater financial stability.

-- have lower rates of obesity, smoking, substance abuse and mental health disorders.

For more information, go to transformingeducation.org.


How early can parents teach these skills? Research shows that fostering them as early as preschool has both immediate and long-term impacts.

If these skills are so important, why are so many American children struggling? "Parents are investing more time and money in their children compared with 30 years ago, yet the outcomes are worse," says Dr. Leonard Sax, a physician and psychologist.

For example, students in the U.S. are 14 times more likely to be on medicine for ADHD compared with kids in the United Kingdom. Childhood obesity jumped from 4 percent in 1971 to 18 percent today. The global rankings of U.S. students in math, science and reading continue to slide.

Sax, author of "The Collapse of Parenting," thinks parents today are afraid of seeming dictatorial. Too many "treat kids like grown-ups and end up abdicating their authority rather than taking a stand with their children."

In his medical practice, Sax shows parents how to positively influence what he calls their child's "conscientiousness" -- self-control, discipline, honesty, responsibility and industriousness -- in a matter of weeks. How? "By setting a clear example and sticking with a simple set of rules. If you're going to change the rules, tell your child what you're doing and why."

Want to help a teen build self-control? "You say, 'No Internet or video games until after you've done your homework,' and mean it," says Sax.

It's never too late to get results, Sax believes. "Parents who one day explicitly announce, 'Things are changing, as of today!' and then consistently enforce the new rules -- and are not cowed when their teen yells, 'You're totally ruining my life!' -- are surprised by how dramatic the change is."

It doesn't happen overnight, Sax warns, "but after six weeks of consistent enforcement, your child will be more pleasant, more respectful" -- more in control.

(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: I coach the elementary robotics team with my son's fifth-grade teacher. She says that I don't give kids enough time after asking questions and suggests I allow for a long pause so students can "cogitate." It seems like forever when she does it. Don't we want kids to be nimble thinkers who answer quickly?

A: Don't wait to take her advice. She's using an effective teaching strategy called "wait time." In a fast-paced, hurry-up, multitasking world, it benefits young learners to slow down and have extra seconds to formulate a response.

University of Florida educator Dr. Mary Budd Rowe pioneered wait time research in the '80s with her discovery that regardless of grade level, students were typically given less than one second to respond to a teacher's question. That meant that eager students were always called on; others not so much. Teachers filled short silences by cold calling on students, or providing answers and moving on.

Rowe showed that when teachers purposely waited a minimum of five or more seconds after a question, students gave higher quality and more substantive answers, their self-confidence increased, and they interacted with one another to advance discussion.

What's more, students reluctant to raise their hands began to participate. Waiting allowed students to better remember the information and articulate a good answer. It increased their ability to grasp and process information. As Rowe explained, "Slowing down speeded up learning."

Dr. Mary Laverty Bigelow, a Pennsylvania-based science educator, says, "Knowing about 'wait time' is useful for parent-child interactions, too."

Certainly, we want children to be able to recall some things fast. "They should master sight words so that they don't stop to decode each word, slowing down their comprehension," says Bigelow. "We want them to develop automaticity with basic arithmetic operations. I watched middle school students struggle with math problems because they had to take time to figure out six times seven."

But when it comes to developing thinking skills, "such as applying, analyzing, evaluating knowledge and creating new ideas, students need time to think," adds Bigelow.

If you ask your robotics team the best way to solve a problem, "you want them to reflect rather than offer up the first thing that comes to mind," Bigelow explains. "To extend the practice, after one student's response, good teachers call on other students, asking, 'Do you have anything to add?' or 'Your hand was up. What do you think?' or 'Do you agree?'"

While dead air may seem like forever to you, "it is beneficial processing time for students," notes Bigelow. "Research shows that when they take extra time, their answers are richer and more complex. These additional few seconds also encourage students to elaborate on another student's response, which is what teamwork is all about."

Whether you're coaching your daughter's team, or asking her to explain an answer to a math homework problem, "remember to slow things down, take a sip of water or mentally hum a few bars of the 'Jeopardy' theme song," advises Bigelow. "When it comes to questioning children, it's often what you don't say that counts."

For more on wait time, see Bigelow's blog at ascd.org/ascd-express/vol11/1101-bigelow.aspx.

(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.)