Enrollment
304
Elementary
DISTRICT 262 · STATE 446
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·CLEVELAND SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 280075001212
Hayes Cooper Center
500 Martin L. King, MERIGOLD, MS 38759 · (662) 748-2734 · Bolivar County
GRADES PK–06ELEMENTARY42-RURALTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL304 STUDENTS
A-
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 84% of Mississippi public elementary schools
- B+Test scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- ABeats expectations How far test scores land above or below what the share of low-income students predicts for a school in this state.
- ·Three-year trend Not available for this school, so the grade uses the other parts.
Grades compare a school only with schools in the same state, because every state gives its own test. How grades work · Top-graded Mississippi public elementary schools
Student : Teacher
14.7:1
21 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 16.0:1 · STATE 15.9:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
100%
304 students
DISTRICT 100% · STATE 80%
Community
0
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other elementary schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-K | 38 | 13% |
| Kindergarten | 44 | 14% |
| Grade 1 | 43 | 14% |
| Grade 2 | 45 | 15% |
| Grade 3 | 43 | 14% |
| Grade 4 | 31 | 10% |
| Grade 5 | 30 | 10% |
| Grade 6 | 30 | 10% |
This year's kindergarten class (44) is 47% larger than its 6th grade class (30).
Student demographics
60%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 48% · STATE 62% · US 70%
Student head counts by race/ethnicity from federal NCES enrollment data. District, state, and US figures are each group's share of all public school students in that area (US excludes territories). Very small groups may be suppressed in the source, so categories do not always sum exactly to total enrollment.
Gender split
School pathway
Students here typically continue to
Based on grade levels within Cleveland School District. Attendance zones can vary; confirm enrollment with the district.
Test scores
MAAP 2024-25 . % Proficient + AdvancedEnglish Language Arts
63.6%
MS avg 45.9% . +6.0pp since 2023
Math
63.6%
MS avg 52.8% . +5.3pp since 2023
What this means: On the MAAP, Mississippi's statewide test, about 64 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 64 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Mississippi schools, those numbers are about 46 and 53. Reading and writing scores are up about 6 points since 2023, while math scores are up about 5 points.
MAAP results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 63.6% | 63.6% |
| 2023-24 | 57.6% | 58.3% |
% Proficient + Advanced, all students and all tested grades.
Source: MAAP. All students, all grades. See all years and grades →
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
OUTPERFORMING
Top 10% of MS schools after controlling for student poverty
Actual proficiency
66.2%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
44.1%
based on MS schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+22.1pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 66% of students here test proficient in math and reading, well above the roughly 44% typical for Mississippi schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations ranks schools against others at the same poverty level, not by raw scores, so a school can post high scores and still fall short of its prediction, or post lower scores and still beat it. This school clears its prediction by about 22 points, placing it in Mississippi's top 10%.
BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual. How this is calculated →
Schools most like Hayes Cooper Center
Hayes Cooper Center's state test result (66.2% proficient) is higher than 4 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hayes Cooper Center this school | 304 | 100.0% | 66.2% |
| Mary Reid School POTTS CAMP | 270 | 98.9% | 49.2% |
| Lake Elementary School Lake | 333 | 99.1% | 67.1% |
| Bowmar Avenue VICKSBURG | 324 | 100.0% | 61.1% |
| Riverside Elementary School Avon | 402 | 99.3% | 44.3% |
| Beat Four School Waynesboro | 416 | 99.3% | 35.5% |
Matched among Mississippi elementary schools on enrollment, the share of students from low-income families (eligible for free or reduced-price lunch), and racial and ethnic makeup. Proficient is the average share of students meeting the state standard across all of the school's state tests in 2023-24 and 2024-25, the same combined score our test-score rankings use. Online schools and schools serving specialized populations are not matched.
Where Hayes Cooper Center ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Mississippi | In Bolivar County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 66.2% | #119 of 428 | #1 of 10 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 63.6% | #124 of 439 ▲ 47 | #1 of 10 ▲ 2 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 63.6% | #84 of 439 ▲ 90 | #1 of 10 ▲ 1 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 304 | #321 of 453 | #2 of 10 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 14.7:1 | #182 of 408 | #4 of 7 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 59.7% | #85 of 409 | #2 of 7 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 100% | #23 of 444 | #6 of 10 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -5.6% | #236 of 296 | #10 of 10 |
Ranked against other public elementary schools. Online schools are left out of every list, and test-score lists leave out schools that serve specialized populations. Each rank links to the full list. Arrows under a test-score rank show places moved since the prior test year, among schools tested both years.
4-year change
SY 2020-21 vs SY 2024-25Enrollment
304
+22 (+8%) vs 2020
-17% since 2000-01, when it was 367
Student : Teacher
14.7:1
was 14.8:1
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
Enrollment and staffing by year
| School year | Students | Teachers (FTE) | Students per teacher | Free and reduced lunch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 304 | 20.6 | 14.7:1 | 100% (304) |
| 2023-24 | 328 | 25.1 | 13.1:1 | 100% (328) |
| 2022-23 | 281 | 24.6 | 11.4:1 | 100% (281) |
| 2020-21 | 282 | 19 | 14.8:1 | 100% (282) |
| 2017-18 | 322 | 21.6 | 14.9:1 | 54% (173) |
| 2015-16 | 334 | 19 | 17.6:1 | 44% (146) |
| 2010-11 | 371 | 20 | 18.6:1 | 43% (159) |
| 2000-01 | 367 | 23 | 16.0:1 | 72% (265) |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Hayes Cooper Center.
About Hayes Cooper Center
Among the schools in MERIGOLD, Mississippi, is Hayes Cooper Center, a small elementary school. The school counts 304 students across pre-K through 6. The typical figure for elementary schools in Mississippi is about 446 students.
Besides Hayes Cooper Center, Cleveland School District runs 7 other schools. The district enrolls 2,793 students.
By race and ethnicity, the largest group at Hayes Cooper Center is White (46%). Other students are 43% Black, 7% Hispanic, and 3% multiracial. That is higher than the 31% White share among all Bolivar County residents. Hayes Cooper Center has a diversity index of 60%, compared with 70% for all US public school students.
Hayes Cooper Center counts 20.6 full-time-equivalent teachers, about 14.7 students for each one. The 15.9:1 average for elementary schools in Mississippi is higher than this school's figure. About 100% of students at the school meet free or reduced-price lunch income limits. Across public schools in Bolivar County, the average is about the same, 100%.
Hayes Cooper Center is graded A- by allk12, scoring above 84% of Mississippi public elementary schools once test results, poverty-adjusted performance, and the recent trend are combined.
Predicted from its free or reduced-price lunch share, Hayes Cooper Center would score about 44.1%. It scores 66.2%, a top-10% result among Mississippi schools on BeatsExpectations.
County data help place the school in context: in Bolivar County, median household income is about $39,585, roughly 28% of adults have a four-year degree or more, and the share of residents below the poverty line is 27%. The public schools of Bolivar County number 19 and enroll about 4,415.
I. T. Montgomery Elementary School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 2.2 miles away. A ten-mile radius around the school includes at least 8 other public schools. Local comparison: Hayes Cooper Center ranks 1st of 9 nearby schools, at 66.2% versus a 37.9% average.
NCES describes the area around Hayes Cooper Center as Rural: Distant, meaning in rural territory some distance from an urban area.
The 2024-25 enrollment of 304 was 8% higher than in 2020-21, when it was 282.
If you have questions about science fairs, picture day, and bus routes at Hayes Cooper Center, you can post them here. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.
Bolivar County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
29,534
Census ACS
Median income
$39,585
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
28%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
27%
Below federal line
Schools in county
19
4,415 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Cleveland School District
- Cleveland Central High SchoolHigh · 799 students
- Cleveland Central Middle SchoolMiddle · 423 students
- Bell AcademyElementary · 327 students
- Parks Elementary SchoolElementary · 265 students
- Nailor Elementary SchoolElementary · 256 students
- D.M. Smith ElementaryElementary · 233 students
Nearby schools
- I. T. Montgomery Elementary School2.2 mi · 185
- Pearman Elementary School6.5 mi · 186
- Cleveland Central High School6.8 mi · 799
- Northside High School7.2 mi · 370
- Cleveland Central Middle School7.5 mi · 423
- D.M. Smith Elementary7.5 mi · 233
Frequently asked questions
About Hayes Cooper CenterHow large is Hayes Cooper Center?
Hayes Cooper Center enrolls approximately 304 students in grades PK-06.
What grades does Hayes Cooper Center serve?
Hayes Cooper Center serves grades PK-06.
How many students per teacher at Hayes Cooper Center?
Approximately 14.7:1 students per teacher at Hayes Cooper Center.
How diverse is Hayes Cooper Center?
Hayes Cooper Center reports a student body of 46% White, 7% Hispanic, 43% Black, 1% Asian, 3% Two or more.
Who oversees Hayes Cooper Center?
Hayes Cooper Center is overseen by Cleveland School District in Bolivar County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.