In 1991, the Minnesota Legislature enacted the first legislation in the nation to permit creation of legally and financially independent public schools called charter schools. In February 1996, the Minnesota State Board of Education authorized an 18-month evaluation of Minnesota's charter schools. An evaluation team from the University of Minnesota gathered data through a telephone survey of the 16 charter schools in operation during spring 1996; site visits; interviews; analysis of student performance data; a survey of staff, parents, and students; and a comparison of Minnesota's charter-school legislation and charter schools with those of other states. This report includes the findings available as of December 1996. The data show that starting new charter schools is very hard work. Charter schools are hampered by a lack of precedent, a lack of resources, innovation under daily pressure, the creation of school culture from scratch, difficulties in balancing planning and implementation, and environmental pressures. The report does not argue that Minnesota charter schools are failing, but that they are encountering developmental issues that locate them squarely in the experience reported in other public and private sectors. It is recommended that new charter schools: (1) confront the additional stresses that make the press of schooling even more potent in new schools; (2) pay more attention to the needs of teachers; (3) develop themselves as active learning communities yet constrain their aspirations for curriculum development; (4) plan for the socialization of members; and (5) actively engage in designing teachers' roles as well as being flexible and experimental in instruction and curriculum content. A total of 22 tables and one figure are included. (Contains 13 references.) (LMI)