Despite the tendency of researchers to assume all schools share a common organizational form, analysis of thirteen elementary and secondary schools provides evidence that elementary schools exhibit characteristics of the rational bureaucracy, while high schools tend to be more loosely coupled. Over 600 classroom teachers and nonadministrative professional staff members responded to questionnaires measuring four organizational dimensions: goal importance, goal consensus, centralization of influence in upper levels of the school hierarchy, and control through rules. High scores on all these measures were assumed to indicate a tendency toward rational bureaucracy and away from loose coupling. (PGD)