A concern with the interrelationship between the formal structure of the high school and the behavior of its continually changing participant constituency is manifested in this paper. The concepts of role theory, status, social organization, and hierarchical structures are discussed in their relation to a processual role model. Within this model, it is stressed that the organization of interest is not the formal organization of the school but the organization of behavior among participants in a social situation. This behavior is noted for its interactive nature, and is thought to be influenced but not determined by the formal organization of the school just as it is influenced but not determined by the extra-institutional norms and goals of the individual participants. The statuses which the formal structure allocates to individuals in the high school situation vary with a series of formal rules, restrictions and obligations. These do not, it is pointed out, define what the individuals in fact will do in that formal status, but set up the parameters within which they may operate. These rules, restrictions and obligations are the components of what previously has been called "role" but is felt here to be more justifiably considered as constraints placed upon the individuals who occupy a particular formally defined status. (Author/KSM)