To complement a national survey called "High School '77," researchers in 1978-79 conducted indepth field studies of the organization of five high schools. School bureaucracy and procedures and their relationship to instruction, teachers, and school programs were analyzed. The five schools were drawn from village, suburban, urban, and central-city settings, and data were gathered through site visits, document analysis, and open-ended interviews with 25-30 people (administrators, teachers, counselors, and students) in each school. The researchers examined (1) the control of teacher assignment to particular courses and the role of administrators, teachers, and departments in making the decisions; (2) the factors affecting course options, including the pressures for diversity or basics; (3) rules and regulations covering teachers' work, such as textbook selection, lesson plans, curriculum guides, and meetings and procedures; and (4) the use to which the schools put teacher evaluations. Among the study's conclusions are that teacher participation in instructional decision-making is widespread in many school departments, that the schools' course options emphasized basics, and that school bureaucracies are sensitive to many pressures. (RW)