The National Core Curriculum (2019) for general upper secondary education introduced an obligation to describe the principles of schools' assessment culture and common evaluation
practices in local curricula, as well as monitoring their implementation. This article examines how
assessment culture is described in local curricula of general upper secondary schools and how
the evaluation obligation required by the Upper Secondary School Act (714/2018) on quality
management and continuous development is implemented between educational institutions
and education providers. Qualitative data consisting of 14 local curricula and individual
interviews with 14 general upper secondary school principals have been analysed using
qualitative content analysis. The results show that, within local education administration,
only some general upper secondary education providers implement the systematic evaluation
of their own performance required by legislation. Our study's results indicate the central role of principals in assessing the quality of general upper secondary education.
