As a result of birth rate decreases in China

the total number of pupils has steadily reduced since 1990s.Inevitably

restricting the primary and secondary school is an important issue for local governments.Meanwhile

along with a number of school closures in recent years in rural China

new problems are frequently reported

such as a long distance of traveling to school for some communities

the quota excess of teaching classes in many schools and uneven distribution of teaching resources among schools.For school redistricting planning

both the educational equality and school efficiency is important.The objective of this paper is to assess the educational equality by introducing geographic information systems（GIS） and the concept of spatial accessibility in school redistricting.Based on the literature review of the planning principles and methods for school redistricting considering the educational need and supply and the service equality and efficiency

the authors attempt to introduce a framework of school planning in rural China.The key technical procedures are enlarging geographic database such as schools

geodemographics and transportation networks

and calculating the spatial accessibility of school services for every community using GIS.The spatial accessibility indices are used to assess the spatial equality of educational service and to measure the rationality of school redistricting.The spatial relationships between population distribution and secondary schools in Gongyi City

Henan Province are evaluated using five accessibility measures

i.e.the ratio model

nearest distance model

chance accumulation model

gravity model and improved gravity model.The case study shows that there are uneven spatial patterns in terms of the per capita educational resources

the distance to nearest school

the chance of school choice and the balance between school supplies and community needs.The locationa advantages or disadvantages identified in the thematic maps have potentials in future school planning.The authors argue to introduce GIS technology and spatial accessibility models in school redistricting in rural China.It is also suggested to explore and verify the spatial patterns of school choice and estimate detailed school supplies and community needs with using Huff model

which lays a theoretical foundation for school facility planning.