Only 10 high schools, all in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg system, have been visited by the "turnaround teams" that the governor touted in August. Nearly three dozen other high schools across the state have been largely untouched by the assistance.

"We've not heard anything from [the state] about a turnaround team," said Bill Harrison, superintendent of the Cumberland County school system. "Someone coming in with an outside perspective could be helpful."

Easley directed state education leaders to provide the extra help to 44 high schools -- including E.E. Smith in Cumberland and Hillside and Southern in Durham. The governor's initiative was announced days before a judge's hearing last summer on poorly performing high schools.

Howard Manning Jr., the Wake Superior Court judge managing the long-running Leandro case on school quality, now is threatening to close 19 of those high schools with a history of low test scores unless their principals are replaced with new ones endorsed by the State Board of Education.

By the time students take the year-end exams that could seal the fate of their schools, a turnaround team may have never visited many of the schools.

Deputy state Superintendent Janice Davis said the Department of Public Instruction is moving as quickly as possible to provide schools with the extra help. A coordinator was hired within the past month.

"I think we're moving forward with working with the school districts as best we can," Davis said. "It was very important that we got started in Charlotte."

Manning singled out eight Charlotte-Mecklenburg high schools in a report last May for what he described as "academic genocide" against struggling, poor students. But he also said it is inexcusable for any high school to have similarly low performance, particularly among minority and low-income students.

Judge mentions teams

In his letter last week warning that he might close struggling schools, Manning mentioned the turnaround teams.

"Governor Easley took positive action by mandating that the State Board of Education establish 'turnaround' teams for the low-performing high schools," Manning said in the letter.

In announcing the teams in August, Easley called for "immediate assistance and action."

"By the start of this school year, these teams will be deployed in Charlotte and statewide shortly thereafter," Easley's August news release said.

But the teams didn't go into the Charlotte schools until October and November. Written recommendations were presented to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board in January, halfway through the school year.

More help

The teams called for more help for struggling students and teachers, stronger instruction in math and science, and a semester system instead of year-long classes.

Several of the other 34 struggling high schools have received indirect help from other state teams assigned to help guide district-level administrators.

"Other districts are getting support in other ways," Davis said.

Howard Lee, chairman of the state board, said the turnaround effort has gone more slowly than expected.

"We have not gotten to some of these schools because we have spent so much time in Charlotte," he said. "The expectation was that we'd have some turnaround presence in all these schools, although we knew that we could not have a team in every school by the end of this school year. ... We don't have enough people, and we don't have enough time."

Self-help

Lee said urban districts in Charlotte, Durham and Greensboro can provide more of their own help than rural districts with fewer resources.

"Urban systems should be able to carry out any mandate we put on them," he said. "Our resources should be targeted at those less fortunate systems."

Easley's view

Sherri Johnson, Easley's press secretary, said Thursday that the governor wants the help to be provided as he directed it in August.

"If DPI needs more resources, then we need to know it," Johnson said. "We expect them to get the job done."

Terry Grier, superintendent of the Guilford County school system, said his district, which includes Greensboro, isn't waiting for the state. Guilford has been taking steps in three high schools that are facing possible sanctions under Manning's warning.

"We've had educators from around the country come and take a hard look at our schools," Grier said. "We are already doing a lot of what Judge Manning is suggesting. We share his concern."

Grier said he would welcome the state's review, but he knows DPI is already stretched thin.

"One of the real challenges for the state is they don't have the resources or the manpower to do what needs to be done," he said. "They don't have the people or resources to provide the help we need."