Q: My granddaughter, Rena, a senior, wants to attend college. She is a champion tennis player, but has struggled academically because of ADHD. Her ACT score and GPA are low. She was rejected by her college choices. Her counselor offers no encouragement except, "Go to a local community college to get ready for college work." But the schools don't have tennis. She has a great personality and wants to teach. Any suggestions?

A: The counselor's advice is discouraging, but there's no reason that Rena shouldn't be able to graduate college if she's motivated and you put the right plan in place.

Many two- and four-year colleges have highly successful programs for students managing ADHD. You just need to find them. A good place to start is "The K&W Guide to Colleges for Students With Learning Differences, 12th Edition" (The Princeton Review, 2014). It offers profiles of 350 colleges with the best programs for students with ADHD and information on 1,000 others with support services.

The authors, college counselor Marybeth Kravets and psychotherapist Imy Wax, offer tips on how to put that plan in place -- even this late in the game.

First, schedule a meeting with the counselor. Press for more specific support and make sure you get all the information in Rena's complete education file (documentation for establishing ADHD, Individualized Educational Program, results of psycho-educational testing, and so on). Rena will need these when applying for support services at college.

Next, identify some "best match" colleges and visit them. Prepare for the interview: Rena should be able to demonstrate self-awareness by articulating her goals, strengths and weaknesses and describing what accommodations she thinks she needs. She should prepare a list of questions for the interviewer, too.

During campus visits, in addition to taking a guided tour, attending a class, eating a meal, talking with students, etc., make sure to schedule a comprehensive meeting with the college's director of support services.

Have a list of questions ready for the director about everything Rena will need to succeed: Is there flexibility in admissions requirements? Are there remedial or developmental courses to help her make progress in weak areas? What accommodations and supports are available for class, as well as testing and tutoring? Is there an extra fee? Who would Rena be working with and what are their qualifications? What is the success rate and what are the career paths of the program's graduates?

Go ahead and ask about tennis, but don't let Rena use the school's lack of a team as a deal-breaker. "The most important thing for Rena is to get on sound academic footing to realize her goals," says Debbie Perrielli, a Florida youth tennis coach. "In most any college setting she can find players to keep her challenged, or opportunities to coach informally. Her skills won't get rusty."

Rena is fortunate to have you as her champion. Keep encouraging her. "No children choose to be born with learning disabilities or ADHD," write Kravets and Wax. "However, if they hold fast to their dreams and aspirations and look beyond the imperfections and hidden handicaps, they can make things happen for themselves."

(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: 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.)