Whereas the basic legitimacy of product accountability seems to be obvious within systems already using large-scale performance assessment (like the US), the same does not necessarily hold true within systems, which do not have the same tradition of measuring performance (like Norway). This paper will compare how accountability is assessed and introduced in two respective settings; Norway and Illinois, with particular interest to the way accountability systems are transformed at the state level, and with reference to public discourses relating to the curriculum. The focus is put on the reformulation of curriculum guidelines and standards in two respective context, which share the same kinds of toolkits, yet differ according to tradition and history.The data-material is mainly public documents and expert reports, formulated at the state and district level. Comparisons aim at studying trans-national changes of curriculum policy in two different contexts of reform during the two last decades. Theoretically, the paper will clarify differences according to institutional boundaries of curriculum politics in Norway and one US state, Illinois, and discuss emerging trends and similarities of governance and control as a consequence of political attributions to world-wide expectations of new evaluation toolkits.1. Tone Cecilie Carlsten (2005): "Anachronisms & frontiers: Approching Administrative Accountability in Educational Policymaking in Norway and USA/Illinois." Master thesis, Faculty of Education, University of Oslo, Norway 2. Tone Cecilie Carlsten, Torild Nilsen Mohn, Ellen Brandt, Are Turmo (2006) Country Background Report Norway. OECD Activity on Recognition of Non-formal and Informal Learning (RNFIL). Report, Ministry of Education and Research, Norway. 3. Kirsten Sivesind, ; Kari Elisabeth Bachmann, Azita Afsar (2003) "Nordiske læreplaner". (Nordic curricula) Oslo : Læringssenteret (Board of Education) 4. Kirsten Sivesind (2002): Task and Themes in Communication about the Curriculum: The Norwegian Compulsory School Reform. In: Moritz Rosenmund, Verner Heller and Anna Verena Fries (Eds) "Comparing Curriculum-Making Processes. " Bern: Peter Lang 5. Tobias Werler, Kirsten Sivesind (2007): Norway. In: Döbert, Hans Hörner et. al (Eds): "The Education Systems of Europe" (Mitter, Döbert, Bortho, Hörner). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers 2007 6. Ian Westbury (in press): Making curricula: Why states make curricula, and how. In F. M. Connelly et al, (Eds): "Handbook of Curriculum and Supervision."(Thousand Oaks CA: Sage) 7. M.D. Crockett (in press)Teacher professional development as a critical resoucre in school reform. In: "Journal of Curriculum Studies".7.Education policy analysis archives/ Journal of Education Policy