"This volume (…) deals with the attempt, developed by the OECD, to implement an international standard to compare educational outcomes for several nations, known as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Using aggregate scores generated by PISA in participating European countries, Chung hones her focus on Finland, which has consistently maintained top PISA scores since the program was first conducted in 2000. Seeking to understand the factors underlying this success, the author conducts an in-depth historical investigation in chapters 2 and 3, laying the groundwork to compare other European countries participating in PISA later. The text delves into an important discussion of OECD, PISA, and their connections in chapter 4, and chapters 9 and 10 cover the challenges of PISA adoption. The concluding chapter considers the possibility of PISA's serving as a comparative database for educational systems in the future. Some shortcomings of this study include the omission of the American education system from discussions and the rather limited bibliography." - J. H. Larson, University of North Dakota"The book is a good guide for policy makers, offering the theoretical approaches and lessons learned to date on public policy transfer; and for political scientists and educationalists, who can learn about teaching guidelines through the book, and other pedagogical approaches, as well as for those interested in Finnish society, history, and their education system. All of the above is only a fraction of the very interesting and rich content of the book, which is the result of the author's many years of work and research in the field of Nordic education systems. The book brings new dimensions to political science knowledge, as well as general insights and interesting facts, and contributes to a different perspective on everyday events and the development of the world in a global context." - Urša Koritnik translated from Šolsko polje, volume 31, issue 1/2 (2020)
