The largest part of the record group consists of accreditation reports containing information on schools in the Kent, Houghton, Washtenaw, and Wayne counties in Michigan. Also included in the record group are a number of bound volumes containing information from the proceedings of the North Central Association's annual meeting, as well as a variety of papers and articles relating to the educational issues of the day.
The North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCA) was founded in 1895 with the purpose of establishing closer relations between the colleges and secondary schools of the North Central States. There were originally ten states that were members in the Association: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Other states joined the NCA gradually, and by 1956 Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, West Virginia, and Wyoming had become members.
The first official meeting of the Association occurred on April 1, 1896, and meetings have been held annually since that point in time. The meetings for the first several years focused around the exchange and discussion of different viewpoints on the educational concerns of the day. Legislation addressing the matters discussed was not a consideration at this point in time.
By 1900, however, the Association had set up a commission on Secondary Schools. This commission was comprised of three separate committees which had the task to come up with a set of standards that would apply for all institutions. In 1910 this goal was accomplished when the committee listed established courses of study comprised of units (which were uniform) for the high school curriculum. Using this list of standards, the Association officially accredited 156 secondary schools in 1911. During this time, the committee was also examining accrediting and standardizing colleges. The Association officially accredited colleges for the first time in 1912. By 1956 there were 3,398 secondary schools and 382 colleges, universities, and junior colleges that were members of the North Central Association.
Individual secondary schools that were interested in joining the Association were inspected by an individual from the NCA. A report containing information for that school year was also completed. In the early years this appears to have been done by the inspector. Then in the late 1910's or early 1920's, the responsibility for filling out this report and sending it to the NCA appears to have been transferred to the schools themselves. If the school was accepted into the Association, then an annual report would have to be completed each subsequent year to make sure that the school was still complying with NCA standards. Periodic inspections by an individual from the NCA were also done for this purpose.
The NCA is still active today, and the process of evaluation of schools by reports and inspection is still in place.
