Editing Academy (section)

===United States===
{{See also|Secondary education in the United States|History of higher education in the United States}}
Prior to the twentieth century, education was not as carefully structured in the United States as it is in the twenty-first. There was not a rigid division between high school and colleges. The typical college at first included a preparatory unit, which it dropped by 1900.<ref>J. M. Opal. “Exciting Emulation: Academies and the Transformation of the Rural North, 1780s-1820s.” ''Journal of American History'' 91#2 (2004), pp. 445–70. [https://doi.org/10.2307/3660707 online]</ref>

In the nineteenth century an academy was what later became known as a high school; in most places in the U.S. there were no public schools above the primary level. Some older high schools, such as [[Corning Free Academy]], retained the term in their names (Corning Free Academy, demoted to a [[middle school]], closed in 2014). In 1753, Benjamin Franklin established the academy and Charitable School of the Province of Pennsylvania. In 1755, it was renamed the college and Academy and Charitable School of Philadelphia. Today, it is known as the [[University of Pennsylvania]].  The [[United States Military Academy]] was formed in 1802 as a college. It never included a preparatory unit. 

The academy movement in the US in the early 19th century arose from a public sense that education in the classic disciplines needed to be extended into the new territories and states that were being formed in the new western states. Thousands of academies were started using local funds and tuition; most closed after a few years and others were established. In 1860 there were 6,415 academies in operation. When the Civil War erupted in 1861 they generally closed down temporarily; most in the South never reopened.<ref>Colin Burke, ''American collegiate populations: A test of the traditional view'' (NYU Press, 1982) table 1.20 </ref>