Q: Last year, all our parent group did was gripe about tests, but nobody brings it up now. Our PTA president says that new laws have stopped mandatory testing. Aren't some tests necessary? How else will we know how our kids are doing?

A: While several trends have shifted the testing picture, your PTA president gets an "incomplete" on the topic. Annual tests are still required.

Here's what's changed. One: States and districts, responding to concerns from teachers and parents about over-testing, cut back on redundant exams. (One Florida district had given students 183 tests between kindergarten and seventh grade; only 17 were federally required.) Cutting back decreased the ongoing test prep that eats into instructional time.

Two: Some "opt-out" movements were fueled in part by efforts to tie teacher evaluations to test scores. Now that most states have uncoupled test scores and teacher accountability, there's less resistance to testing.

Three: Parents realize that the maxim "what gets tested, gets taught" shortchanges kids. Subjects such as social studies and the arts -- and hard-to-test social-emotional skills such as resilience, responsibility and self-regulation -- get less instructional time. Parents and teachers want to change that.

Four: There are big changes at the federal level. On Dec. 10, President Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), replacing No Child Left Behind. ESSA passed with strong bipartisan support in both houses of Congress. It continues to mandate annual math and reading testing requirements for grades 3 though 8, and requires that schools annually report test scores and keep track of demographics including race, economic status and disabilities.

But states can now set their own goals and timelines on accountabliliy, subject to approval by the federal Deparment of Education. For example, states can decide how to weigh tests, how to evaluate teachers and how to sanction schools where students don't graduate on time or whose students score in the lowest 5 percent.

"This bipartisan agreement came about because policymakers were wise enough not to throw the testing 'baby' out with the bathwater," says Bill Jackson, CEO and founder of GreatSchools.org. "Parents don't want their kids to undergo unnecessary tests or endless hours of prep, but they do want to know how their children are doing and how well their schools are performing."

Nationally normed annual tests can provide that information, says Jackson; however, "but the results aren't easy for parents to interpret."

GreatSchools hopes to change that. Working with major test providers, the organization just launched the GreatKids State Test Guide for Parents: a free online tool that's organized by grade and subject.

"This tool will help parents understand the scores and use them to support their kids' learning," says Jackson. "The guide fills a critical need: specific, actionable information for parents, customized to the grade level of their children and described relative to the sections of the tests."

To learn more, and to use the guide, visit StateTestGuide.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 does "blended learning." What defines blended learning, and is there a good resource on it? What devices are best? If we understand it correctly, we think we'd like to use it at home to move our boys beyond video games.

A: Blended learning is an instructional strategy that combines face-to-face teaching with online engagement, allowing students more control over the time, pace and place of their learning. Surveys suggest that more than 75 percent of the nation's school districts are implementing some type of blended learning.

"It's a way of re-centering learning around individual student needs," says Heather Staker, the founder of online resource Ready to Blend, and co-author of "Blended: Using Disruptive Innovation to Improve Schools" (Jossey-Bass, 2014).

The Internet offers parents opportunities to supplement the classroom curriculum and "provide their children with learning resources that before were out of reach," notes Staker. "Say a family wants to learn a foreign language, understand computer coding or go inside the Smithsonian. ... These experiences are now affordable and accessible with a basic device and Wi-Fi."

But to navigate this world requires effort. "No wise parent would send a child on a field trip without knowing if it were safe and worthwhile," explains Staker. "Similarly, every site on the Internet is also a destination -- albeit a virtual one, and this time, children usually travel alone. Parents are well-advised to be as concerned for the safety and worthiness of destinations in the virtual realm as for those in the physical."

To find appropriate sites, Staker refers parents to CommonSenseMedia.org, "a great resource to help families identify worthwhile content. It reviews education apps, as well as movies, videogames and other media."

To help parents find safe sites and give kids fun academic challenges, Staker and her husband created an online blended-learning program called Brain Chase (brainchase.com).

"The program offers multiweek academic challenges that motivate second- through eighth-graders to learn by disguising the hard work as an adventure quest. Participants search for an actual buried treasure," says Staker.

Each day, participants are challenged to read and write and solve puzzles and problems provided by such online resources as Google Books, myON, Rosetta Stone and Khan Academy. Credentialed elementary teachers grade the writing assignments. During the program, kids receive "adventure tools" such as decoders in cool packaging in the mail. (The spring 2016 Brain Chase adventure starts Monday, Feb. 8. Go to brainchase.com for details.)

Which devices work best for blended-learning activities? Staker likes Chromebooks because "they are affordable (less than $300), and our family doesn't mind that the software resides in the cloud, not on our local hard drives. Other families see benefits in tablets because of their mobility.

"Be aware, however, that although tablets are great for consuming content, they are ill equipped for producing it. Students have trouble composing essays on tablets, for example, and external keyboards tend to break easily in backpacks."

For more information, go to readytoblend.com.

(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: We try to manage the "screen" lives of our tweens. Yet every time we turn around, there's a new app to worry about or another social media horror story to scare parents. Help!

A: You're in good company. Many parents are overwhelmed, says Caroline Knorr, the parenting editor of Common Sense Media, which has shown that 8- to 12-year-olds are averaging nearly six hours a day on entertainment media, while 13- to 18-year-olds average a whopping nine hours. With numbers like those, it's understandable that parents want strategies to keep kids' online experiences safe, productive and fun.

Here's the good news: Research shows that tweens and teens whose parents are actively involved in their kids' media lives consume less media, make better choices and understand more of what they're interacting with.

"So, even if your kids know way more about media and technology than you do, you can still help them navigate the digital world safely, responsibly and productively," says Knorr.

She suggests these media-savvy New Year's resolutions:

Have the talk -- the one about being safe, smart and responsible online. "You don't have to be an Instagram expert to give your kids a solid understanding of how you expect them to behave," Knorr explains.

Keep social media in perspective. Just because your teen is on Snapchat every minute doesn't mean she's really having fun. According to Common Sense Media, 45 percent of teens use social media every day, but only 36 percent say they enjoy it "a lot." Teens whose parents talk to them about their social media lives report being happier.

"As with anything, social media has good, bad and neutral aspects, but kids need parents to help them sort out which is which," says Knorr.

Create a media plan. It's easy for media and technology to overstay their welcome. Make a plan to stay in control. It might include:

-- Screen-free zones. Certain areas (bedrooms, for example) and times (such as dinner) are off-limits to phones, tablets, TVs and other devices, so they're reserved for rest and family time.

-- Less multitasking during homework. Little distractions can add up to big misses in school.

-- Enforcing limits. "Everyone needs to disengage from their devices, adults included," says Knorr. "But without someone to draw the line, tweens and teens may text late into the night or play video games till they look like zombies. Establish appropriate boundaries and make sure you enforce them."

-- Encourage informal learning. Studying guitar from YouTube videos, reading "Star Wars" wikis and watching TED Talks are all valuable screen activities that you can encourage and share as a family.

-- Promote healthy skepticism. Help kids think critically about the media they consume. Ads and content are increasingly intertwined, and studies have shown that children have a hard time distinguishing between the two. Online stories are routinely unmasked as hoaxes, and companies' privacy policies are filled with legalese. You should ask yourself who made the content you're watching and who the audience is. Think about the content's messages. (For more resources, go to commonsensemedia.com.)

-- Celebrate kids using social media for good. Across the world, tweens and teens who are tired of online negativity pop up with positive messages to share. Celebrate those examples and talk to your kids about the power of social media for productive social change.

(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.)