Q: My daughter graduates from college in May. Her adviser suggests she take an exit test called the Collegiate Learning Assessment Plus. He says it will help her get a job. I thought that's what a four-year diploma was for. What is this test and why should she take it?

A: The Collegiate Learning Assessment Plus (CLA+) was developed by the Council for Aid to Education (CAE), which, according to its website, focuses "on providing educational assessment services to educational institutions."

Some call the CLA+ a test of "21st-century workforce skills."

It's relatively new and gaining traction as an objective, benchmarked report card that measures intellectual growth in critical thinking, analytical reasoning, document literacy, writing and communication -- areas many companies view as more important for professional success than subject-area knowledge.

The CLA+ is open to any student and costs $35 (though many colleges waive the fee). It's given during the spring of senior year.

Your daughter has nothing to lose by taking it. With so many recent grads living jobless at home, she should use every tool available to present herself to prospective employers. (And it will help you learn whether all those tuition checks were worth it!)

Potential employers use the test to determine whether students' abilities match their college credentials and GPAs. Some colleges use the tests to grade themselves -- a key thrust of the Obama administration's push for higher education accountability.

Recently, CAE analyzed CLA+ scores of 32,000 recent U.S. college graduates and that found 4 in 10 lacked the complex reasoning skills to manage white-collar work.

Jessalynn James, a program manager at CAE, says many students begin "college at such a low level in these skills that they may still not be proficient at the point of graduation."

Richard Arum is a New York University sociologist and co-author with Josipa Roksa of "Aspiring Adults Adrift" (University of Chicago Press, 2014). He says parents, colleges and students share the blame for this "failure to launch."

Arum believes that parents must start early to show kids the relationship between discipline, learning and success later in life. When they begin thinking about college, orient them so "that they understand that college is a time when one needs to invest in rigorous academic coursework" -- that the social aspects are a complement, not the main attraction.

When looking at a college, Arum says parents should ask tough questions. Go beyond the recruitment brochures and sales presentations at a visit. Ask for evidence of outcomes. What are student scores on tests of critical thinking such as the CLA+? How many recent graduates have jobs, and what type? How effective is the college's career office? What kinds of internships and services such as practice interviews does it provide?

M.J. "Chip" Block, a retired business leader who mentors students in Palm Beach County, Florida, says, "A few can construct a cohesive argument, think logically and write a clear explanation of their ideas. But many don't have the analytical and organizational skills to show potential employers they can excel in a job. The truth is that these key skills are not just essential for one's career -- they are critical if you're going to be an informed, effective citizen and productive member of a community."

(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: Do schools still teach civics? My middle school-age daughter has no clue how government works. How can I help her develop civics knowledge in an interesting way?

A: Middle-schoolers aren't the only ones who can't tell a senator from a representative. The Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania finds alarming civic illiteracy among adults. In a recent poll, only slightly more than a third of Americans surveyed could name the three branches of the U.S. government. Thirty-five percent couldn't name a single branch. (Test yourself at civicseducationinitiative.com/take-the-test.)

Social studies, which include civics, suffered with the passage of No Child Left Behind. "In an age of high-stakes testing, teachers are under immense pressure to teach what's tested, and science, math, reading and writing are what we test," says Dr. Emma Humphries at the Bob Graham Center for Public Service at the University of Florida. "Nowhere is this truer than at the elementary level, where teachers report mere minutes devoted to social studies instruction."

Most states require at least one high school semester of American government. Some now require civics instruction earlier. Tennessee and Florida have embedded more civics into their curricula in recent years. In addition, Tennessee's legislature is considering a bill that would make high school students pass a civics test to graduate.

No one has done more to reboot civics than retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. "In 2010, Florida unanimously adopted the Justice Sandra Day O'Connor Civics Education Act to improve civics instruction and assessment," says Humphries. "The act requires that students successfully complete at least one semester of civics for middle school promotion and take an end-of-course examination that constitutes 30 percent of their final grade. Most of Florida's 67 school districts have implemented yearlong civics courses in seventh grade to prepare students for the high-stakes exam."

In 2010, O'Connor founded iCivics.org, a free, interactive website with award-winning games and other digital activities that place students in different civic roles and give them agency to address real-world problems and issues.

"It's a great resource for home or school," says Humphries. "Since its launch, students have played iCivics games 27 million times." (Humphries recommends floridacitizen.org/resources/other for more resources.)

Bill Laraway, a fifth-grade teacher in San Jose, California, encourages parents to use current events to get kids excited about civics.

"There's always something meaty to discuss -- from banning sodas in schools or climate change, to measuring the effectiveness of protest marches," he says. "These talks give kids a chance to polish critical thinking and language skills."

Laraway uses news apps such as NPR, USA Today and CNN to prompt conversation. He also directs parents to age-appropriate discussion guides at CNN Student News, Channel One News, Scholastic News, Newsela and Time For Kids.

Florida congressman Patrick Murphy meets often with students in his district: "A student recently asked about Ben Franklin's advice: 'It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority.' I replied that to be an effective citizen, you must first know what citizenship means. It's exciting to see a renewed emphasis on civic education in our schools."

(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 district is shifting from STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) to STEAM, adding Arts, supposedly because they will help students do better in STEM subjects. I'm for bringing arts back into the curriculum, but do they really help kids score better in math and science?

A: A growing group is advocating for a STEAM approach -- from parents and teachers who think that integrating arts into subjects motivates students, to business leaders who say that an arts education produces more innovative thinkers and better problem solvers.

Many cite the work of the late Stanford University theorist, Dr. Elliot Eisner, who identified 10 lessons the arts teach. (See arteducators.org/advocacy/10-lessons-the-arts-teach.)

There are good reasons to "bring back" arts to a STEM-heavy curriculum, but improving math and science scores is not among them.

Eisner rejected research purporting to show that music, dance and painting boost test scores. He promoted arts study for arts' sake. His Discipline-Based Art Education (DBAE) stresses four aspects: making art, appreciating it, understanding it and making judgments about it. He thought that the critical thinking required to create artistic works is relevant to all curriculum areas and helps students learn that problems can have more than one solution and that questions can have more than one answer.

University of Arkansas education professor Dr. Jay Greene agrees that there is "almost no rigorous evidence" showing that arts improve test scores. However, his recent research shows that the arts can have important positive effects on students.

He and his colleagues randomly assigned 11,000 students from schools in Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma to two groups. One took a series of field trips to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. The other group did not.

The researchers were "careful to focus on outcomes that could plausibly be altered by the arts," says Greene. They measured whether field trip art experiences had an effect on student values, such as tolerance and empathy, and whether students' ability "to engage in critical thinking about the arts was affected by these experiences."

The results showed that not only did the cultural experiences improve students' knowledge about the arts, but the exposure also affected students' values, "making them more tolerant and empathetic," Greene notes. "We suspect that their awareness of different people, places and ideas through the arts helps them appreciate and accept the differences they find in the broader world."

The museum experiences also boosted critical thinking. Students took "the time to be more careful and thorough in how they observe the world." (For more on the study, see educationnext.org/the-educational-value-of-field-trips.)

"Arts integration is a powerful tool for engaging students," says John Ceschini, an arts education officer in Prince George's County, Maryland. As past principal of Seven Oaks Elementary School, a STEAM school in Maryland's Anne Arundel County, he saw firsthand how integrating the arts into STEM lessons can motivate kids and "foster critical-thinking skills -- analyzing, assessing, categorizing, classifying, predicting, justifying, interpreting."

The arts may not guarantee top grades in STEM subjects. But the other benefits to students -- learning to view the world from multiple perspectives, to empathize, create, collaborate and problem-solve -- are good reasons for arts integration to go full-steam ahead.

(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.)