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Originally Posted by Lamplighter
Do you have any feeling that the 80% means there are 20% more in open enrollment, or, the 20% are closed enrollment.
If the latter, what sort of schools are those ?
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"Charter" and "open-enrollment charter" are synonyms, at least in Texas. State law says charter schools are not allowed to hand-pick students, enrollment is strictly by a blind lottery among applicants. What they mean is that 80% of the existing charter schools in Texas belong to the Texas Charter School Association, which I believe is mostly a lobbying and resource organization, and the other 20% of charter schools aren't members. (Our school is one of the ones that does not belong to the organization, FWIW.)
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Originally Posted by Lamplighter
Also, what sort of situations are the "40% specialized mission" ?
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It's a catchall designation. Locally, it includes:
1.) A school focused on professional fine arts performance--academic scores here are likely to be average. They are a mix of students who just happen to know they want to be professional singers, musicians, dancers, etc. Graduation requirements include many hours of classes in your chosen fine art field.
2.) A school for extracurricular prodigies--academic scores here are below average. The school makes it very clear that they are going to get you to meet the state requirements in as little time as possible, because the only thing you really care about is going to the Olympics, or whatever. They don't nurture the extracurricular, they leave that part up to you. Passing is all that matters.
3.) A school that is somewhat weighted towards STEM topics (Science/Tech/Engineering/Math.) Curriculum requirements are high overall though, and they could just as easily call themselves "college preparatory." Academic scores are going to be much higher than average. The school population is majority Indian, and most of their parents work in computers.
4.) A school that follows the International Baccalaureate curriculum, which is generally focused on critical thinking, diplomacy, and public service on a worldwide scale. In practice, the school encourages kids to study what they're interested in, and creates a "portfolio of work" rather than a graded report card. Tests here are average to slightly-below-average, because their whole deal is a rejection of standardized testing, so while they have to take it, they don't stress the kids about it and do basically nothing to prepare for it.