The study reported in this volume is focused on a systematic comparison of the school systems in Canada, England, Finland, France, the Netherlands and Sweden. It aims to identify factors of education systems as well as cultural and socio-economic factors that are responsible for the international variation of student performance as demonstrated in PISA 2000. Therefore, in addition to the systematic comparison of the school systems, hypotheses are formulated identifying factors with a major impact on student performance. This publication addresses specifically the scientific community in the areas of comparative education, school effectiveness research and school system governance. The country studies that served as a basis for the analysis were published under the title "Conditions of School Performance in Seven Countries - A Quest for Understanding the International Variation of PISA Results" as volume 3 within this series.