This chapter examines efforts by the University of Michigan to strengthen connections with the secondary schools and build a hierarchical educational system in the state. Through an innovative inspection and accreditation program, university faculty traveled throughout the state to visit and evaluate high schools. Michigan's efforts foreshadowed the development of later initiatives, such as the regional accrediting agencies, the College Board, and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, as well as the work of the Committee of Ten on Secondary School Studies. The University of Michigan developed the inspection program to help create the educational hierarchy. Michigan's accreditation program may have succeeded in encouraging some students to think about a college course of study and perhaps built greater support for the university. But it is not clear that the program measurably improved the quality of the lower schools or brought more students into the university's lecture halls than would have come anyway.