County school programs in Kentucky.-During the past two years State supervisors of rural schools have assisted county superintendents and boards of education in formulating a county-wide progressive program. Twelve counties have been studied and county school programs initiated. These programs have been orgaĥized under the leadership of county superintendents and provide for present and future needs of the schools.

Financial conditions force retrenchment.-New Hampshire and Delaware are the only two States which report reduction in supervisory forces during the biennial period. In Delaware a reduction of the appropriation for the maintenance of schools required a curtailment of the supervisory force. The smaller rural grade schools, formerly under the supervision of the regular rural supervisors, were therefore placed under the supervision of their respective principals, the rural supervisors confining themselves largely to one and two teacher schools and advisory duties with the principals in the larger schools. In New Hampshire similar reductions in the State appropriations resulted in reducing the staff by two members.

Reports from other States.-During the biennial period New York established a division of rural education in the State department. The amount paid district superintendents from State funds toward their salaries was increased from $1,800 to $2,400, thereby raising the average salary of district superintendents in the State to $3,250. The maximum salary is $7,000. This amount is received by district superintendents in two counties. Each superintendent also receives $600 from the State for traveling expenses.

Additions to the State rural supervisory staffs are reported from California, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Virginia. Additional counties brought under supervision during the period are reported from California, Florida, Maryland, Michigan, Arkansas, Washington, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee. In all, approximately 200 supervisors in addition to those reported in 1922 are reported to the Bureau of Education. It is estimated that there are about 1,200 rural supervisors in the United States.

RURAL SUPERVISION AND STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENTS

In-service training for superintendents.-A number of States in which assistant supervisors to the county superintendents are not yet furnished find in State and regional conferences of rural superintendents an opportunity to carry on an intensive type of in-service training in instructional supervision. Provision for teacher training in service is an acknowledged administrative necessity. A similar arrangement for superintendents and supervisors is proving particu

larly valuable, especially in view of the fact that it is extremely probable that some time will pass before any considerable proportion of rural superintendents will be adequately trained for supervision through graduate courses in higher institutions.

In recognition of the practical difficulties of the situation, the conferences of rural superintendents have been undergoing a gradual change in recent years. Those in which the bulk of the time was devoted to inspirational and informational addresses and general discussions are gradually being superseded by conferences of one or two weeks' duration and what may be termed short courses in the principles and methods of instructional supervision. Instructors who have special training for, and experience in, school supervision are brought into these conferences from without as well as from within the State. The courses resemble in quality and professional standards those given in summer sessions in normal schools and other higher institutions. Paralleling the change in type of work given, sessions are extended over a longer period. Montana, Oklahoma, and Minnesota are among those States which make special mention of improved standards of county superintendents' conferences for the biennium. Twenty-two States report some form of county superintendents' conferences.

CENTRALIZING TENDENCIES IN ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIZATION FOR EFFICIENCY AND ECONOMY

Recognition of the utter inadequacy of small administrative units to meet the demands of modern educational ideals and a growing desire for efficiency and economy in school administration are governing factors underlying the movement for greater pooling of effort in educational support and school administration.

Centralizing movements affecting local school units conspicuous during the biennium are:

(1) The movement to provide on a State-wide scale and through legislative action, for an administrative unit large enough to afford more nearly adequate support and a complete educational unit of elementary and secondary facilities with professional management, supervision, and teaching staff. The county as the unit of organization is now established in varying degrees of centralization in 22 States. The movement is both (a) to strengthen it by increasing powers and duties of the county board and superintendent in those States where such strengthening would add to efficiency; and (b) to establish the county unit in several States now organized on the district or township plan. Kentucky and Virginia are two States which have taken definite steps during the biennium to strengthen

the county organization in vogue, Kentucky by changing the manner of election and lengthening the term of members of the county board of education, and Virginia by stimulating county boards of education to exercise more authority and participate more fully in the management of schools within their county.

In at least 10 States adoption of the county unit plan has been advocated extensively, fostered by education officials generally, State school officials, State education organizations or others. Among them are Missouri, Wisconsin, Texas, Colorado, Arizona, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Washington, and Indiana. In some States drives or campaigns designed "to inform the people" have been conducted on a State-wide scale. (c) Some consideration has been given also to another plan not yet tested in any State but advocated in New York for the past four years. It is generally known as the community unit plan. Proposed legislation for Kansas involved a type of community unit. None of the States that advocated the adoption of either county or community plan were successful in securing the legislation sought.

(2) The movement for voluntary centralization on the part of small local units generally known as consolidation.

TENDENCIES IN SCHOOL CONSOLIDATIONS

Reports coming into the Bureau of Education for 1923-24 concerning general progress in the direction of bringing small schools together to form larger ones indicate that the emphasis has veered from numbers to the more fundamental consideration of efficiency. Intelligent direction is replacing promotion. Consolidation in and of itself is not a panacea for the ills of rural education. Its virtue is potential. Transferring from the one-teacher to the consolidated school the same short term, unqualified teachers, lack of professional management, equipment, and the like, changing only the size of building and number of children to be educated under one roof, has little to recommend it from an educational standpoint. Consolidation has possibilities and offers opportunities-is a means to an end. Full development of possibilities and full realization of opportunities afforded must be sought in order to insure the success of the plan. Among the tendencies noticeable in the direction of increased efficiency, the following are worthy of special mention:

(a) Scientific study of special problems.-The growing practice of employing administrators and teachers with professional preparation including graduate study is responsible for increased emphasis on the necessity for scientific study of the organization, curriculum, and practice adapted to the needs of consolidated schools.

Several consolidated schools have been established or their direction assumed by teacher-preparing institutions in cooperation with the regular officials in charge. It is purposed to use these schools for observation and practice work primarily but also for experimentation and demonstration.

(b) Larger units of consolidation.-Mounting costs of education, especially of secondary education, have hastened a tendency toward consolidation on a larger scale than has hitherto been considered desirable. Improvements in roads, in motor vehicles, and in transportation generally have promoted this tendency.

(c) Consideration of future development.-There is a growing realization of the necessity of considering future development when centralization plans are projected. Intelligent planning in advance over a larger extent of territory and considering the education of larger numbers of children will, it is believed, facilitate the formation of each consolidation unit in such a way that it will fit into and contribute to the success of the larger plan. It should not be difficult to avoid mistakes, common in some sections, of leaving strips of territory or even whole districts so isolated that advantageous centralization in the future is impossible. There is a noticeable tendency to postpone the first steps toward consolidation until surveys county-wide, or even larger in extent, can be made.

(d) Improving the small schools.-The tendency is increasing to improve one-teacher schools where consolidation is impossible. There is no incompatibility between promoting at the same time the efficiency of the two most prevalent types of rural schools, namely, one-teacher and consolidated. Small schools, not only the oneteacher type but the two and three teacher types, will undoubtedly continue to decrease in number and in the percentage of total number of children enrolled. There is little probability, however, that such schools will be entirely eliminated in the near future. Thousands of rural children must depend on the small schools for all the education they will receive. We are therefore obligated to continue every possible effort to improve them as well as the larger ones. Amount and extent of school consolidation.-The movement to increase the size of the school units, buildings, and groups of children, and to improve thereby the quality of instruction of rural children is not confined to any State or section. Some consolidated schools and some one-teacher schools are found in all States. The largest numbers of one-teacher schools, apparently, are in those States which center around the region of the Great Lakes. In each of the following States there are more than 5,000 one-teacher schools: Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York; Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri; Kentucky, and West Vir

ginia. The single exception in the Great Lake group is Indiana. Iowa, Illinois, and Pennsylvania have approximately 9,000 each. So far as numbers are concerned, the problem of eliminating the oneteacher schools and substituting consolidated schools is greater in these States than in the others. It must be remembered that numbers alone afford only one measure either of the difficulty of the problem or of the success of the consolidation plan. Information concerning the percentage of children enrolled in the different types of schools and the relationship of enrollment to the number of schools is not available. It is apparent that in the States in the above group the percentage of the total number of children attending oneteacher schools is large. Massachusetts, Utah, New Jersey, and Rhode Island of all the States enroll the smallest percentage of their children in one-teacher schools.

Estimates made in the Bureau of Education, based on reports from the different States and information from questionnaires received from State and county superintendents, indicate that there were at the close of 1924 approximately 14,000 consolidated schools of all sizes from two teacher schools, representing the union of small groups, to the large consolidated districts served in some instances by large high schools and even junior college grades. Probably about 150,000 teachers are employed in these schools, and two and three-fourths millions of children are enrolled. Approximately 1,500 consolidated schools have been formed during the biennial period, probably adding between 250,000 and 500,000 children to the number enrolled in consolidated schools. Thirty-five States report on the number of schools formed during the period. Arkansas, Mississippi, Texas, Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, and Ohio report the largest numbers, varying from 75 in Texas to over 300 in Mississippi and Ohio.

Additional estimates made in the Bureau of Education show that there are approximately 168,000 one-teacher schools in the United States, enrolling approximately four and three-fourths million children. Other types of schools enrolling rural children are one, two, and three teacher schools in the open country, village schools, and schools located in towns of 1,000 population and under. On the whole, it is estimated that approximately 12,000,000 children in the United States, properly called rural, are enrolled in the different types of schools, and that approximately 9,000,000 are from farm homes.

The number of consolidations formed, considered alone, is not an adequate measure of the progress of the consolidation movement. Improvement in the quality of education furnished-the real desideratum-does not always parallel growth in the number of con