Released in October 2003, this detailed and helpful report from the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution offers a broad overview of the current state of American education from kindergarten through 12th grade. Authored by Tom Loveless, the director of the Brown Center, the report notes that overall student achievement across the United States was largely a mixed affair, as was charter school performance. Among other things, the report notes that between 1990 and 2002 students in the fourth and eighth grades made gains in both reading and math, but that twelfth grade reading scores declined. The report also notes that while rural schools are generally the lowest funded schools in the United States they tend to perform better as a whole than their urban and suburban counterparts. As noted, the report also contains a section on charter schools, including research that suggest that the academic achievement levels of these institutions continues to remain below average, and that many of them are failing education standards set outlined in the No Child Left Behind Act.