Despite the Odds: The Contentious Politics of Education Reform. By Merilee S. Grindle. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004. 288p. $55.00 cloth, $22.95 paper.

No one argues with the claim that education is a necessary ingredient for any recipe for economic and social development. With higher rates of literacy and numeracy, with more years of schooling, a cornucopia of benefits emerge—from lower birth rates to healthier workers to more autonomous women to more engaged citizens. And yet despite the recognition that everything good comes from education, expanding and reforming public education is a costly and contentious process in all political systems. Scholars and politicians alike are pessimistic that educational reform can be instituted. Given the costs and the conflict, what can explain successful implementation of educational reforms?