The rural school project of the continental United States consists in educating over 18 million young people between the ages of 5 and 20 who live in small towns and villages, or in the open country. The 300,000 or more schools classified as rural enrolled nearly 12.5 million pupils in 1920, employed 425,00 teachers, supervisors, and principals, expended $391,000,000, and have a property investment of not less than $767,000,000. In number of schools, enrollment, attendance, and teaching corps, the rural project is larger than the urban project; in expenditure and permanent investment, it is less. It has long been a matter of common opinion that the opportunities for education offered to rural children have been and are much inferior to those offered city children. Recent surveys of several State school systems have shown that almost without exception the one and two teacher schools are the weakest in the systems, and usually as the number of pupils and teachers approached that necessary for a graded school, the scores made in objective tests have indicated better results. Moreover, the small schools are very expensive, not only in failing to do their work well, but in the actual amount of money spent per pupil. There have been many attempts made to raise the level of rural education, most of them to some extent successful. They have taken the form of educational surveys and campaigns; efforts to secure more funds and more equitable distribution of funds; special appropriations in State aid for weak schools; more centralized, responsible, and professional administration and supervision; more carefully gathered data to detect weaknesses and determine their causes; laws intended to bring about longer terms, better attendance, better qualified teachers, and more adequate school buildings; setting definite standards and recognizing the schools that attain those standards; and consolidating smaller schools or districts into larger, stronger educational units. Many educators believe that the first logical step in the solution of the rural school problem is consolidation wherever at all practicable, and that along this line the greatest success can be achieved. The scope of this study is school consolidation in general, but more particularly as it applies to rural schools, its different forms, the laws governing it, its history and development, the measure of its progress and success, and the things that commend it. (Contains 24 maps and 13 plates; individual sections contain footnotes.) [Best copy available has been provided.]