The School Organization program of the Center for Social Organization of Schools is currently concerned with authority-control structures, task structures, reward systems, and peer group processes in schools. This report, prepared by the School Organization program, examines one aspect of authority-control structures in high schools--content of school rules and procedures for deciding them--to determine their relationship to school stability. The analyses of survey data from 3,450 students in 14 urban high schools show that a school's stability (rates of truancy, vandalism, and protests) is related to its procedures for deciding rules as well as to the content of the school rules. The results are discussed in terms of Lipset's theory of legitimacy and effectiveness as sources of stability in societies. (Author/JF)