This report by the National Study of Charter Schools provides descriptive information on charter schools that were operating in the 1998-99 school year. The document addresses three major questions: "How have charter schools been implemented?""Under what conditions, if any, have they improved student achievement?" and "What impact have they had on public education?" The questions were answered through annual phone surveys, repeated field visits, the administration of student achievement tests, the administration of teacher surveys, the analyses of state charter laws, and an examination of how charter school legislation has affected school districts. The report is divided into four sections. Section A, which provides an overview of the charter movement, describes the growth of charter schools, paying particular attention to the differences across the charter states in terms of the number of charter schools. Section B summarizes basic characteristics of charter schools compared to other public schools, such as school size, grade-level configuration, student-to-teacher ratio, and student-to-computer ratio. Section C focuses on student demographic features of charter schools compared to other public schools, whereas the last section reviews data on issues that are central to understanding how charter schools may operate differently from other public schools. (RJM)