Another school year approaches, and it's a good time to step back to assess how your child is doing.  Nationally, the news is not good — many of America's schools are sliding towards crisis.

But we are not helpless.

Everybody wants what's best for his or her child, especially when learning is involved.  There is no more important investment a family can make.  But most investments are expensive, involving private schooling, tutoring and computers.

These are terrific if you've got the money.

But even if you don't, there are still simple techniques found in homes that are successful, regardless of the income level.  Here are seven lessons, based on educational research and common sense, from those who have succeeded against the economic odds.

First, get your child to school every day.  Obvious, but attendance counts.  A recent University of Minnesota study found attendance to be a better predictor of test scores than poverty.  Those with 93 percent attendance aced the standardized tests.  Those who attended only 85 percent of the time found their scores plummeting.  We learn best that which we do regularly. The principle is, "time-on-task."  Monitor the regularity of homework.  Want to be really obvious?  Cut the television.  There is a direct correlation between hours spent in front of the tube and years spent being a boob.

Second, know your school.  What's the name of your child's teacher?  What's the name of your child's principal?  Call them before there's a problem, and let them know your expectations.  Are the students getting enough homework?  Are the halls safe?  Find out what they're studying, what texts are in the classroom.  Do they have a dictionary?  An encyclopedia?  Offer the teacher a partnership.  In home conversation, honor, don't denigrate, those who teach.  Nothing is more powerful than when a parent and the school reinforce each other, combining strengths.

Third, dress for success.  It's as important as a good breakfast and a proper workspace.  It needn't be a uniform, but don't let your child get in the habit of going to school in disrespectful clothes (you know what they are).  Schooling is your child's job.  Expect children to have proper work clothes; they need not be elaborate, but clean and neat.  Express your expectations for your child's behavior and attitude.  Self-discipline is the longest-lasting gift.  Respect books.  Don't mock achievers.  Honor the learned.

Fourth, read to your children.  In the morning, read to them from the newspaper.  In the evening, give them a story.  Combine the majestic power of the imagination with the profound pleasure of sharing a world.  Your child will acquire new words, and will also learn from your inflections and tones, and the simple fact of adult interaction.  When was the last time you went to a public library with your child?  Teach them how to look something up.  If you don't know how to do research, ask a librarian.  Sure, your children will watch TV, but when they do, monitor the programs, and watch with them.  Comment on the action and the characters.  Use television as an occasion for presenting your family's values and standards.  Get down on the floor and enter your child's world.  Make yourself fully accessible; your child will turn to you like a sunflower to the sun.

Fifth, have zero tolerance for cheating.  There are two dangers every child faces — failing, and failing more completely through dishonesty.  Cheating is no more than a futile dodge of failure, which places your child in double jeopardy.  Failure is a disappointment, but it is no dishonor.  Cheating, however, ensures the worst of outcomes — nothing is learned, and everything is risked.  The reality of failure is evaded, at an additional cost to moral standing.  Failure can be fixed.  Honor lost can only be regretted.  If your child's teacher or principal winks at cheating, throw a fit.  They are stealing your child's future.

Sixth, be home when your child gets home.  Research is very clear on this.  The hours between 3 and 6 p.m. are the most vulnerable in your child's life.  That is the period when the unsupervised child starts down the pathways of trouble.  It is also the best period, when the day's material is still fresh, to reinforce the day's lessons.  Be there when your child gets off the bus.  Listen to your child's report on his or her day, whether they are brimming with pride or burning with the sting of failure.  Console them, chastise them, strengthen them, whatever is called for.  But don't leave them alone.

Seventh, as often as you can, play school.  Have one child teach a younger sibling.  This act has a remarkable power for both of them.  The older child gains subject mastery and pride in duty served, while the younger learns through admiration.  This was a lesson learned from the old-fashioned one-room schoolhouse of years ago, where the rule was "each one teach one."  Then have them both teach you some lesson or task.  It will be a joy for them, and a moment of pride for you.  Foster a culture of learning by practicing learning — and teaching — in turn.

In the truest and best sense of the term we are all "home-schooled."  A religious leader once said, "No success in life can compensate for failure in the home."  Learning how to learn is the first task.  Start by reading this list to your children.  Ask them what they think.