We are here dealing with education governance under a performative turn. What information systems are recently built up and what information is used in governing education and schooling? As a case we use information systems in Sweden and its use by the Swedish government. In this national information system international comparative studies (especially PISA, TIMSS) and the working of supranational organisations as the OECD is given a prioritised position. In sum, our contribution has a comparative point of view in examining the epistemic as well as the institutional landscapes of ranking lists and league tables. Our focus is the social and political nature of the epistemic basis for comparisons, and the manner in which “ideas” travel and are borrowed in an international context. We present analyses of rationales inscribed in the constructions of such information systems as well as the rationales inscribed in their disseminations and translations. Our interest in competing epistemic figures within accounts of the international character of education institutions has the purpose of focusing on discursively strong points of how, for what reasons, and by what means the quality of education is to be improved in the future.