More New Orleans schools likely to become charters

Several schools in the Recovery School District in New Orleans are likely to become charter schools in the next few years as part of a continuing push toward school decentralization in the city, which already has the highest percentage of students in charter schools of any city in the country. Recovery District Superintendent Paul Vallas says independent charter operators probably will take over the lower grades of at least four poorly performing schools next fall. At the same time, the top-performing district schools, probably about a third of the elementary-level programs, will be given the option of applying for charters in the next two years.