For the third consecutive year, New Orleans public schools have shown significant improvement in state exams, narrowing what is still a considerable gap in student achievement between the city and state.

But despite the schools’  progress, a spirited debate continues over how to best run the city’s schools, which remain divided between two governing authorities, each promoting its own educational style.

The division began a few months before Katrina, when the state began taking over some New Orleans schools that it classified as  ”failing.”

“The system was in a crisis because schools were failing for years,” Paul Pastorek, the state’s superintendent of education, said last week.

After Katrina, which destroyed many of the city’s 128 schools, authority for the majority of New Orleans schools shifted from local control, under the Orleans Parish School Board, to the state, under a body called the Recovery School District (RSD). Today, the Recovery district runs 33 public schools, in addition to overseeing 33 charter schools, which are publicly financed but independently operated. The Orleans School Board now controls 5 public schools and oversees 12 charter schools.

On May 20,  the new scores were revealing that 6 percent more fourth- graders in the Orleans Parish schools passed the state’s LEAP exam than last year; in the Recovery district, there was a 4 percent jump in scores. For students in the eighth grade, Orleans Parish scores climbed 12 percent and the Recovery district gained 5 percent. The high schools in both district showed similar gains, with double-digit increases on the Graduate Exit Exam.

The release of the  scores was a cause for celebration, but Orleans Parish officials contend that  the competition between the districts for resources and control is distracting from the effort to help students.

“There are too many selfish competing interests in the system, causing things to be overlooked,” said Brett Bonin, a board member of the Orleans Parish board. “Each district tries to look better, but we are all educating children. Our ultimate goal is to improve education in New Orleans overall.”

One of the main concerns in the community is when or whether  the districts will recombine.

“There hasn’t been a statement of an exit strategy. If the strategy is to never return the schools, the R.S.D. needs to say that the schools will not be returned to the citizens of New Orleans,” said Woody Koppel, president of the Orleans Parish board. “If they do not trust the city to run the schools that needs to be said. Not saying anything doesn’t help the children.”

Pastorek has said that the state does not plan to return the Recovery district schools to local control for at least a year.

Paul Vallas, superintendent of the Recovery district, agreed that it was too soon to end state control. “It’s too early to consider if the New Orleans Parish School Board is prepared to lead these schools,” he said. “I don’t think that they are ready at this time.”

The Orleans Parish board said that it is carrying on an ongoing battle with the state and independently run charter schools to regain its place managing schools.

“There is not a lot of negotiating,” Koppel said. “It’s hard to know how to run schools when there is no equality, powerful charter lobbying and the R.S.D. having absolute control have put traditional schools at a disadvantage.”

Pastorek has dismissed claims that the Orleans Board will be eliminated. However he is adamant that the traditional school governance model, with one city school board and superintendent making all plans, does not work.

“The Orleans Parish School Board has one central office that controls hiring, spending and curriculum decisions,” Pastorek said. “The old days of command and control doesn’t work.”

He supports legislation that limits the power of school boards, imposing term limits and lowering board members’ salaries. In the Recovery district, he is trying to give  power to superintendents in decentralized and smaller districts, who he says are more accountable. “We’ve created strong leaders for our schools and give them the flexibility to organize and instruct, but they have to adhere to our standards,” Pastorek said.

Support for shifting from locally elected school boards to state government control has its critics in  the community.

Cheryl Jones, a parent in the Orleans Parish district, disagrees with the state’s model of governance. “The School Board runs in a way that there is a close eye kept on the district. The community has closer ties to the traditional school system and is more involved. Spreading the leadership is difficult to pinpoint who is responsible.”

The rift over state-versus-parish control is only part of the debate on the future of city schools.

Some members of the community are questioning what type of school works most effectively for  children – public or charter. Improving scores in both types of schools have blurred the line over which school is best for a particular student.

“There are more options available and parents need to be more informed of the different levels of academic achievement,” said Frank Williams, executive director of the Greater New Orleans Education Foundation, a nonprofit organization that advocates  reforming public schools. “The Recovery School District is making progress, and charter schools have consistently performed well. There lies the challenge for parents understanding the different opportunities and what school is better for their children.”

New Orleans has the highest percentage of charter schools in the country, with more than half of public school students attending.  Charter schools can be more selective with their admissions because they cap their enrollment, providing a more stable population to learn at the same pace. Public schools must accept all students, and since February; 1,000 students returning to New Orleans have been placed in the district, producing varying performance levels in classrooms.

But a growing fear of residents and educators who favor  public schools is that they will be handed over to charter operators.

“I am a supporter of charter schools; they should play a part in public education,” Koppel said. “My concern is that the R.S.D. is pushing off underperforming schools to someone else to deal with.”

Pastorek countered that the district does not favor either traditional or charter schools over the other, “We want to put the best system in place,” he said. “Charter schools have been effective across the country and we have to change what used to be the education system.”

The Recovery district announced plans last week to create a nonprofit charter-management organization to take over two more of its public schools, which it says are underperforming. The organization, called No Excuses, will take over the schools beginning next summer.

Regardless of the fate of city school leadership, emotions remain high.

“We are at war to save the lives of our children,” Vallas, the Recovery district superintendent, said as the test scores were released, “We all have to come together to provide a quality education system that will revitalize the city.”