Book excerpt: Understanding educational success of Alberta or Finland needs to include an awareness of socio-cultural, political, and economic factors-issues covered in several chapters of this book.Indeed, education policies that drive better equity and equality in these systems must be kept at the center of attention when considering any lessons from these high-performing school systems.Finland has shown, just like Alberta, that educational change should be systematic and coherent, in contrast with the current haphazard intervention efforts of many other countries...my own conclusion is that developing the capacities of schools through interventions like AISI (Alberta Initiative for School Improvement) in Alberta and school-led curriculum system in Finland is much more important than testing the hell out of students, and that some out-of-school policies and support mechanisms to families and children associated with health, well-being and happiness are also necess