Q: I am confused about the new Common Core State Standards. Our state has always had learning standards, but I'm told these new ones are national. What was wrong with the old standards?

A: Many states adopted learning standards following the 1983 release of President Ronald Reagan's "A Nation at Risk" report. It warned that our schools weren't adequately preparing kids for college or work.

Since education policy wasn't a federal responsibility, states were urged to devise their own curricula to improve teaching and learning. The result? A patchwork of well-intended efforts. U.S. students continued to perform poorly compared to other industrialized nations on many benchmarks, including college readiness.

Enter the Common Core State Standards movement: The goal of the CCSS was not to create a "national curriculum," but to define what students need to know and be able to do to succeed in college and future careers. Over the last several years, teachers, parents, subject area experts, as well as business and community leaders have all weighed in to help create the CCSS in English language arts and math (others will follow) and to clearly communicate what is expected of students at each grade level.

"CCSS is a huge shift," says Mary Dietz, a former school administrator and education consultant. "Forty-five states and three territories have adopted them. It's the first time the country has ever defined the knowledge and skills all students should have when they leave high school.

"In school year 2014-15, states will begin to assess student progress on them. The tests will measure, among other things, higher order thinking skills, so there will be fewer multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank items."

Education consultant Erin Power, commenting at edutopia.org, says the CCSS are organized in "an intoxicatingly simple, linear fashion that acknowledges that the work of a first-grade teacher contributes to the growth of a 10th-grade student. This connectedness between grade levels is a welcome departure from some previous state standards that jumped from topic to topic, addressing a particular skill one year, dropping it the next."

The CCSS don't tell teachers how to teach. They provide a framework of what students should know in a given subject at a given grade level, says Dietz. "For example, a second-grade English language arts standard states that students will: 'Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text.' It's up to the teacher, school or district to choose the materials and methods used to teach that standard."

Parents should review the CCSS (go to corestandards.org) and ask administrators how they differ from what your state is using now, says Dietz. "Parents should also insist that the district offer training in implementing CCSS. What we're saying to teachers is: 'Here's the standard. You figure out how to teach it.' For some teachers, this is very freeing. Others will need ongoing support to expand their capacity and build their confidence."

For multiple perspectives, go to edutopia.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: My fifth-grade son, Brennan, slides by in school and shrugs off homework, but likes his teacher. Threats don't work. The teacher wrote that he's smart and could do better if he were more motivated. Isn't that her job?

A: She's doing her job; she's reaching out to you for help. Make an appointment to see her. Tell Brennan you're meeting with her to find out how to make learning more fun for him. Invite him to come. That might boost his motivation.

Parental actions and expectations have a huge influence on a student's desire to learn. The trick is in knowing how to use that influence. First, ditch the technique you're using.

"Negative outcomes for negative behavior don't work," says Albuquerque educator Jane Bluestein, Ph.D., author of "The Parent's Little Book of Lists: DOs and DON'Ts of Effective Parenting."

"Rather than say, 'If you don't do your homework, you can't play video games,' switch to positive consequences," she says. "If he does his homework for a week, let him choose the menu for a weekend dinner. Sure it's a bribe, but there is no such thing as unmotivated behavior. Every decision we make is influenced by an anticipated outcome. We either choose the option that offers the most meaningful benefit or the option that protects us from some form of loss.

"Choosing dinner is a meaningful benefit -- it celebrates his achievement, provides family fun, gives him a sense of control and reinforces good behavior."

Ask Brennan's teacher how you can connect his fifth-grade curriculum to his home life.

"The more kids see the connections between what they learn in class to their experiences outside of school, the more interest and pleasure they'll take in learning," says Kathy Seal, co-author with Deborah Stipek, Ph.D., of "Motivated Minds: Raising Children to Love Learning."

Talk with him about what he's learning in class. Is he studying the solar system? Share a video or read an article on the recent meteorite that landed on Earth. Is he studying the weather? Watch the Weather Channel with him for a week and graph weather where friends and relatives live. Find more activities to reinforce learning at home at greatschools.org.

Linking school to life also means asking children to apply knowledge to everyday tasks at home, says Seal. If the family needs a new washer, ask Brennan to research models, prices, consumer ratings, warranties and chart it before you head out to stores. Discuss his analysis with him: What does sales tax and delivery add to prices?

"The more you involve him in using his learning, the more empowered he will feel," says Bluestein. "Demonstrating our competence is a great motivator!"

Specific encouragement is more motivating than general praise, Bluestein advises.

"Parents tend to overpraise and undervalue achievement," she says. "For example, if Brennan gets a good grade on a science project, don't say, 'You're so smart!' Recognize the specific accomplishment.

"Try, 'I'm impressed that you know the steps in the scientific method. And you learned to spell hypothesis! It took me years to learn it!'"

(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 school is giving students more nonfiction assignments and wants parents to make it a priority at home. My seventh-grade daughter loves vampire books, "The Hunger Games," and "Diary of a Wimpy Kid," but says nonfiction is boring. Why are schools pushing nonfiction?

A: There's been a decline in students' ability to read increasingly complex texts, especially nonfiction. One reason is a diet of easy fiction. Only 15 percent of middle school assigned reading is nonfiction. At the elementary level, it's half that. Students aren't developing comprehension skills or vocabulary required for success in math, science and history as they move up the grades.

Nor are many students challenging themselves in their reading choices. "The Hunger Games" and "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" books are written at a fifth-grade level. Much of what your daughter chooses to read is two levels below her grade.

She's not alone. "A recent study by Renaissance Learning shows that a majority of students in grades one through three read at or above their grade band," says children's author and reading researcher Michael Milone, Ph.D.

"Beyond this point, the percentage drops precipitously," he adds. "By grade six, most students are reading books below their grade band. By grade eight, a relatively small percentage reads within their grade band. This doesn't reflect students' abilities, just the books they choose to read or are assigned."

To improve this picture, the new Common Core State Standards shift the balance of fiction to nonfiction as students advance through school. New guidelines suggest that by the end of fourth grade, students' reading should be half fiction and half nonfiction. By the end of 12th grade, the balance should be 30/70.

Show your daughter that nonfiction is far from boring, says Jonathan Rosenbloom, editor of Time Learning Ventures.

"Biographies, autobiographies, opinion pieces, essays, speeches, memoires, almanac entries, and journalism that tells great stories are examples of nonfiction students now encounter," he says.

To promote nonfiction reading at home, start with what your daughter likes. Share reviews of vampire books and movies, says Rosenbloom. "Find profiles of authors she reads, such as Suzanne Collins, or behind-the-scenes reports on favorite book-based movies ... Look for stories about Hunger Games star Jennifer Lawrence."

He also suggests you subscribe to magazines that cover topics she's interested in.

Develop the habit of reading a short news article with her every day. Point out the characteristics of nonfiction writing, Rosenbloom advises.

"Show how headlines, photos, captions, charts, maps and graphs aid understanding and advance the stories," he says.

When you share nonfiction with your daughter, you not only expand her interests, you're preparing her for college and beyond, says Rosenbloom.

"Novels relax us, but more than 80 percent of what we read as adults is 'informational text,'" he says. "It's a fact that bringing a little nonfiction to the breakfast table can have a big impact on her life as a reader."

(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.)