Cushing Academy

Cushing Academy is a coeducational college preparatory boarding school for grades 9 through 12 plus an optional postgraduate year located in Ashburnham, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1865 in fulfilment of a bequest by Thomas Parkman Cushing and opened in 1875, and is sometimes cited as the oldest coeducational boarding school in the United States. Dr. James Tracy has been headmaster since fall 2006.

Cushing Academy has approximately 445 students, from 26 states and 28 countries; 25% are from overseas. 85% board on campus. The faculty-student ratio is 1:8 and 68% of faculty hold advanced degrees.

Cushing Academy's campus overlooks the town center of Ashburnham. Cushing's academic structures include the historic Main Building, dedicated in January 1894 a year after its predecessor was destroyed by fire, the Joseph R. Curry Academic Center, the English Building, and the Emily Fisher Landau Center for Visual Arts. Ashburnham House and Alumni Hall are the largest student dormitories. Sports facilities include the Heslin Gym, Theodore Iorio Arena, and several athletic fields.

In 2007, Cushing Academy founded the Cushing Institute for 21st Century Leadership; it is a partner institution with the James Martin 21st Century School at Oxford University.

In 2009, Cushing Academy announced plans to spend $500,000 transforming its library into a "learning center" featuring a number of Amazon.com and Sony electronic readers, three large flat-screen TVs to project Internet pages, special laptop-friendly study carrels, and a coffee shop where the reference desk was. In an Update to Parents dated September 10, 2009, the headmaster states that the library's printed books will be replaced over a two-year period, that faculty had first claim on those removed from the library, and that "books, in all formats, will continue to abound at Cushing."