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The Tucson Unified School District has unveiled a plan to improve student achievement. While the goal is to increase academic performance in all of its schools, the new outline gives particular attention to schools that are on state or federal lists as needing intensive help.

Under the plan, teachers will monitor kids and offer help promptly, schools will create steps to improve, teachers will receive more training and schools that are in academic crisis will receive extra supervision and training as well as possibly a new curriculum and administrators.

Excuse us while we get out of a time warp. For a second, we thought we were back in 2001. That's the last time TUSD administrators announced a major overhaul designed to improve education — and it looked a lot like the latest version.

One important difference is that the new iteration applies to the entire district, while the so-called StARR plan (that was short for Student Achievement Accountability for Results) focused on 17 schools that then-Superintendent Stan Paz identified as potentially being tagged by the state or federal education systems for underperforming. He took action before Arizona LEARNS and the federal No Child Left Behind school accountability and labeling protocols went into effect.

Of the 17 StARR schools, eight are under some level of state or federal intervention because students aren't achieving academically or because not enough students took standardized tests. Seven other schools are on the current list.

It is difficult to turn schools around — and to keep the schools doing well today on the right track. Schools are full of moving parts and are subject to trends beyond their control. Socio-economic stresses show up in classrooms as kids change schools frequently, come to school hungry and live with the effects of poverty.

The plan calls for the creation of a districtwide literacy plan and stronger English as a Second Language programs in middle schools. These are positive moves.

TUSD's latest plan addresses a shortcoming that has nagged the district for years by increasing training and cultural proficiency for teachers who work with American Indian students, a group that hasn't performed as well on standardized tests.

The Native American Studies Department will create education forums for parents to better inform them of testing requirements, as well as come up with ways to increase student attendance. But here, too, are steps that either have been taken — or should have been. For example, increasing the number of kids who consistently come to school has long been a focus for Hohokam Middle School. Yet the middle school, which serves a large number of Pascua Yaqui students, had an attendance rate of 87 percent last school year compared with 93 percent districtwide. And of those students who missed class, 60 percent were unexcused absences — twice TUSD's rate.

Pascua Yaqui tribal officials told the Star's George B. Sánchez they were glad to hear of the improvement plan, but education division director Alena Hernandez said the tribe would like TUSD to "reach out more." But that goes both ways — the tribe must emphasize the value of education and help the schools. The Tribal Council took a good step when it voted June 27 to give TUSD $50,000 from its gaming revenue to help aid American Indian student improvement, attendance and parent involvement.

Students deserve a solid education, no matter where they live or which school they attend. This plan may not be entirely new, and the elements — helping kids when they need it, properly training teachers and administrators and making sure all schools are on track — should be no-brainers for any school district.

But what's been done in the past hasn't worked in many cases and must be changed.