BOOK REVIEW : Understanding PISA’s Attractiveness: Critical Analyses in Comparative Policy Studies edited by Florian Waldow and Gita Steiner-Khamsi. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2019. 272 pp

To scholars of comparative and international education, the significance of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is beyond dispute, contributing toward the global governance of education and, at the same time, enabling a veritable cottage industry of PISA-related policy research. This relevance is reflected in the OECD’s own statements, unreservedly describing PISA as “the world’s most comprehensive and reliable indicator of students’ capabilities . . . and a powerful tool that countries and economies can use to fine-tune their education policies.”1 Notwithstanding such promotional rhetoric, it is of critical importance to understand how and why PISA exerts such persuasive tendencies for education policy makers and schooling leaders alike.