The History of Accreditation
By the late 1880s, more colleges than ever were being founded in the United States, thanks to the Morrill Land-Grant Acts of 1862 and 1890, which set aside land for establishing public educational institutions. At the same time, a number of different types of institutions were calling themselves "colleges," including technical institutions, professional schools, music conservatories, teacher’s colleges, and even fraudulent providers cashing in on the market, but there was no clear definition on what a "college" was.
To help set standards among admissions procedures, credits, and degrees, as well as distinguish legitimate institutions from degree mills, non-governmental regional associations started to form, consisting of voluntary, peer-based reviews of institutions. The first such organization was the New England Association of Colleges and Schools, founded in 1885. That was followed by the Middle States Association in 1887, and in 1895, both the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and the North Central Association of Colleges Schools, the latter of which published the first list of accredited schools in 1913.
At the same time, professional schools also began developing new accreditation standards, and in 1912, one of the first national accrediting agencies formed when a group of 23 private career schools created the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (then called the National Association of Accredited Commercial Schools). That was followed by the American Council on Education in 1918, formed to reduce duplication in and increase the effectiveness of the accreditation process.
By the 1930s, accreditation was the norm in the higher education landscape, and post-World War II, several bills further legitimized the accreditation process. The first was the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act, aka the GI Bill, which passed in 1944 and provided millions of WWII veterans with access to free higher education. To avoid supporting degree mills, which also proliferated during this time, the government depended on accreditation to determine which schools should receive funding.
Then in 1952, following the Korean War, the Veteran’s Readjustment Assistance Act passed to, like its predecessor, provide veterans with free higher education opportunities. To help determine which schools should receive funding from the government, the bill mandated that the U.S. Secretary of Education (then called the Commissioner of Education) publish a list of nationally recognized accrediting agencies and associations. This marked "Congress’ first statutory statement of reliance on accreditation as one of the principal determinants of quality education," according to a paper published in The Journal of Higher Education.
The role of accrediting associations in the U.S. was further cemented in 1965 with the passage of the Higher Education Act, which created new federal student aid programs for non-veterans. As with the GI Bill and Veteran’s Readjustment Assistance Act, only accredited institutions were eligible to receive the funds.
Since the passage of the GI Bill, the structure of accrediting agencies has continued to grow and evolve. In 1949, following a rise in the number of national professional and specialized accrediting agencies, the major national higher education associations united to form the National Commission on Accrediting (NCA). Similarly, the regional accrediting agencies formed the National Committee of Regional Accrediting Agencies, later known as the Federation of Regional Accrediting Commissions of Higher Education (FRACHE).
In 1975, NCA and FRACHE merged to create the Council on Postsecondary Accreditation (COPA), through which accrediting agencies sought to provide a unified process of recognizing accrediting agencies through peer-review evaluation, and to improve quality assurance among member institutions. In 1996, COPA was replaced with the Council for Higher Education (CHEA), which today serves as the primary authority for the Department of Education and Congress on higher education accreditation and the quality of accrediting agencies. It’s also a source to the public on anything dealing with accreditation.
Looking ahead, the scope of accreditation will become more international, according to an interview in Higher Ed Jobs, as more institutions open branches abroad or get involved in education with overseas partners. The "global reach of accreditation" will also be expanded as foreign institutions look toward the U.S. accreditation system as a world standard.
