Social processes in desegregated schools are much more complicated than is generally thought. Data from three desegregated schools are used to highlight the operation of two social processes which have an impact on the interracial behavior of students. One process stems from an academic status ordering, the other comes from power relations in the informal world of the students. There was abundant evidence of the strength of the status characteristic of reading ability in the three schools. The dominance of higher ranking readers over lower ranking readers was apparent when a mixed status group was given a collective task which forced them to evaluate each other's contributions. The low status student is affected not only by his or her own low general expectations for competence, but by low competence expectations from classmates. With regard to the second social process involving power relations among students, many black students were seen by both white and black classmates as being highly influential. This attributed power is a strong predictor of social status, just as is academic status. Therefore, student social power can become an effective treatment for problems stemming from academic status distinctions. (RLV)