The paper explores how and to which extent accountability plays a role in selected educational policy documents in different nations. The preliminary results from the international project Successful School Principalship show differences and similarities across the seven participating countries (Australia, Denmark, England, Hong Kong/China, Norway, Sweden and the USA) regarding principals` perceptions of the extent to which they are held accountable. Using selected policy documents as a source of analyzing the national educational context, this paper aims to investigate and compare the phenomena accountability in order to explain some of the differences and similarities in principals` perceptions across country boundaries. Moreover, the paper focuses on how the discourses of accountability have changed and developed in times of globalization.In analyzing accountability in different educational policy contexts, I draw upon Sinclair's (1995) categorization of different forms of accountability, as well as Ranson's (2003) historical analysis of how the practice of accountability has changed over time since the mid 1970s. Accountability is a multilayered concept with a connection to trust. It defines a relationship of formal control between different parties. As such, accountability is a social practice pursuing particular purposes, defined by distinctive relationships and evaluative procedures (Ranson 2003). One has to answer questions about what has happened within one's area of responsibility and provide a story or an account of practice; what has happened and why it has taken place. Survey data from 2005/2006, which includes 1820 responses from principals in the seven countries, is used as a point of departure, but the discussion in the paper is primarily based on discourse analysis of selected policy documents from Norway, England and Australia (Victoria), with the focus on accountability. Findings indicate that accountability plays a different role across the three selected cases depending on how and to which extent for instance large-scale performance assessment is embedded in the accountability procedure systems. Also the degree of standardization differs. Underlying the rhetoric in the national policy documents, different discourses or regimes of accountability seem to exist side by side. Møller, J., Sivesind, K., Skedsmo, G. og Aas, M. (2006): Skolelederundersøkelsen 2005. Om arbeidsforhold, evalueringspraksis og ledelse i skolen. Acta Didactica. Vol. 1. Institutt for lærerutdanning og skoleutvikling. Universitetet i Oslo. Ranson, S. (2003): Public accountability in the age of neo-liberal governance. Journal of Educational Policy, 18(5), 459-480. Sinclair, A. (1995): The chameleon of accountability: Forms and Discourses. Accounting Organizations and Society. Vol. 20, No.2/3 (219-237).