Kent Educational Associates was organized in 1954 as the Grand Valley Educational Secretaries to work toward the professionalization of the educational secretary, to strive to improve communication between faculty, parents, and students. Membership was open to anyone engaged in education secretary work in the Grand Valley area. By 1968 the organization changed its name to Kent Area Educational Secretaries, and ten years later, in 1978, was known as the Kent Area Educational Office Personnel Association. In 1982 the group changed its name again, this time to the Kent Educational Associates, and membership was open to secretaries, clerks, aides, bookkeepers, and those who worked as office personnel in administration, libraries, maintenance or transportation in the Kent Intermediate School District.