The author reviews the monograph which is concerned with international experience of application of standards in pre-school, primary and secondary education, and also in teachers’ education. The reviewer identifies the problem of standardization of school education and emphasizes the relevance of the book in the context of the broad discussion of the new standards for high school. The book is evaluated in terms of its contribution to the issues raised in this debate: the role of modern general education and reasonable limits of its standardization, the limits of schools’ freedom in determining the school curriculum, the relationship between the content of educational standards and their application.