This article will present how the Swedish Government and the Riksdag/parliament/ has increased the policy stream from 1994 with the purpose to change the school system. During the first period the political majority was social-democratic and from 2007 there has been a conservative alliance majority in the Riksdag. One of the conservative alliance big election questions was the quality of today’s schools and the policy decisions from 2007 have all focus on changing and improving schools and their academic outcomes. The challenges for superintendents and principals in the policy stream have been to muddle through the increased demands for accountability and improvement of student outcomes. The policy stream has like in most western countries grown into a hurricane of accountability and that have changed the function of superintendent. Many of them are today balancing between governing through more of a control system than through different support function in the local school district. Additionally, we have a new School Act in which the principals of the different schools are given increased responsibility for implementation. Our article will discuss the changing role for the superintendent, based on both interviews and a national questionnaire to superintendents and school board chairs and members.