This study examines how much organizational theories can be applied to understanding schools. According to one organizational theory, certain pressures can force an organization to use more sophisticated methods of coordination. In a school, this would mean that staff and parents would be forced to work together to find ways to deal with uncertainty. Some previous research, however, suggests that schools are quite unlike other organizations; they have weak hierarchical controls of instruction and few coordinating mechanisms. This analysis examines how California's Early Childhood Education (ECE) Program affected coordination and control in participating schools. Data used were collected by the Environment for Teaching Program at Stanford University. Results suggest that the pressures created by the ECE program did indeed force the schools to use new types of coordination (horizontal communication through ad hoc committees) and that in ECE schools, even more than other schools, weak coordination and control are associated with a school's failure to be effective in making decisions. (Author/JM)