<P> The seven organizations form the Council of Regional Accrediting Commissions (C - RAC). Each regional accrediting commissions' executive directors and commission chairs sit on C - RAC and periodically promulgate principles and guidelines which are followed by the regional commissions . Although the principles do not replace individual commission regulations, they provide a basis for assessing accreditation practice between regions . </P> <P> All regional agencies have accrediting authority for colleges and universities, 2 - year, 4 - year, or both . Some agencies also have accrediting authority over K - 12 schools (primary and secondaryschools). Both the northwestern and mid-Atlantic regions divide responsibility between two separate accreditation agencies with one focusing on primary and secondary schools and the other focusing on postsecondary institutions . In the western region, there is a separate commission that accredits 2 - year colleges . </P> <P> The regional accrediting agencies were established in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in response to a perceived need for better articulation between secondary schools and higher education institutions (the school offered the courses the college needed applicants to have taken; this helped colleges and universities evaluate prospective students). The New England Association was formed in 1885 by a group of schoolmasters of secondary schools . The Middle States Association formed in 1887 . The faculty of Vanderbilt University led the establishment of the Southern Association in 1895, and the North Central Association was organized the same year at a meeting of 36 administrators of midwestern schools, colleges, and universities . The Northwest Association of Secondary and Higher Schools (predecessor of the two organizations that now serve that region) was formed in 1917 and the Western Association was founded in 1923 . Initially the main focus of the organizations was on accreditation of secondary schools and establishment of uniform college entrance requirements . </P> <P> Accreditation first emerged as a regional rather than national activity because it typically involved site visits, and the fastest transportation available at the time was the railroad . </P>

Regionally accredited institution of higher education in the united states