Through a legislative change the accountability for educational quality in Norway has been placed on the school owners (mainly counties and municipalities). Local accountability systems bridging the gap between school owners and schools have been set up to a very varying degree. About 70% of the municipalities do not fulfil the requirements for the evaluation and follow-up of schools. We can identify school owners, which have established an outcome-based local accountability system, while in other cases it is hard to find evidence of any other system than fiscal accountability. Oslo is one school district in Norway that in 2002 introduced an outcome-based accountability system under which overviews are published that show the schools' average academic achievements measured in exam results, assessed attainment and test scores in core subjects. Other components included are school choice, extensive devolution and per-student funding. As a school reform, the underlying program of Knowledge Promotion (kunnskapsløftet), is held as "the most important answer to the challenges in the Norwegian school system". However, Interviews and analyzes of documents It is a central argument of this paper that the institutional dynamics of the civil service are transforming The Knowledge Promotion as a project via inter-organizational processes. The reform is transformed by a complex mixture of institutional contexts, environmental pressure and polity features.Elstad, E (2002) Towards a Model of Strategic Actions in the Classroom: Games theory as research heuristic. (2002) Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 46(1), 65-82. Elstad, E. (2006) Understanding the nature of accountability failures in the technology-filled classroom: disaffected students and teachers who give in. Journal of Curriculum Studies, vol. 38 2006. Elstad, E. (2008) Towards a theory of mutual dependency between school administrators and teachers. Bargaining theory as research heuristic. Educational Management, Administration and Leadership. issue 36.3, July 2008 European journal