It is the purpose of this study to analyze some of the phases of accreditation of higher educational institutions, especially from the viewpoint of the responsibilities of the States. An account of the historical development of accreditation by State, regional, and Nation-wide agencies will be given. The existing practices of agencies within States accrediting teacher education and general, collegiate institutions will be described for a selected list of 30 States. In addition, there will be presented an appraisal of the issues and problems involved in the accreditation movement. Selection of the States in which the existing accrediting practices are described was made with the specific objective of showing representative variations of State accreditation. A certain number of States were selected from each of the geographical sections of the country so as to present a picture for the Nation as a whole. Among the States were those with large populations and with small populations. Furthermore the selection included States having many higher educational institutions under either public or private control and States having only a few institutions. More than 75 percent of all the institutions in the country are located in the States comprising the study. Of necessity only brief treatment has been given in the study to the relationship of State accreditation to other State regulatory or supervisory functions over higher education. Among the latter is State regulation or supervision of the chartering and establishing of new institutions, the granting of degrees or diplomas by institutions, the certification of public-school teachers, the licensing of professional practitioners, and similar activities. Accreditation also has relationships to collegiate admission practices, graduation requirements, and other phases of the internal administration of higher educational institutions. It has been possible to treat such relationships only a limited way. Individual sections contain footnotes. (Contains 11 tables.) [Best copy available has been provided.]