The purpose of the Norwegian paper is to present findings from the 2011 school board survey drawn from Norwegian municipalities which correspond with school districts in other national systems. The large-scale survey was undertaken in 2011, and the respondents were all local politicians having served for a four-year period. The research is the first national investigation of school policy making at the local government level in Norway. A major theme in the survey is how local school politicians perceive their level of empowerment in relation to their municipality’s strategic school decisions as well as perceived influence towards school decisions. Moreover, the paper analyzes the Norwegian local school board’s perceived capacity and competence in various domains of local governance. The survey data is furthermore matched with performance indicators from national databases in order to provide a more fine-graded picture of local school governance in Norway.