First, the paper aims to outline an analytical framework to understand the relationship between responsibility and accountability as facets of governance in education. This includes analysis of national education policy related to institutional responses and reflexive decision-making in school practice.   Second, empirical data from two linked research projects are analyzed to explore how principals’ conceptualize and respond to new expectations put forward by current evaluation policy in Norway. The methodology follows a comparative design which combines qualitative and quantitative data collected in 2005 shortly after the introduction of the national evaluation system. The quantitative part includes a survey with 540 principals, which is a national representative selection. The qualitative part represents principal interviews from 19 case studies.   The findings show that school development relates to national education policy, however not dictated by political aims. Although new expectations are raised through a new evaluation system, local priorities are filtered by the principals’ conceptions of reform and the institutional capacities to respond. Moreover, new forms of governance imply a form of reflexivity where principals align the role of mandated authority (responsibility) and their contracted obligations of developing learning processes and outcomes (accountability). This means to handle paradoxes and dilemmas created as a consequence of administrative control.