The top reported proficiency rate is 71% in Science. The lowest is 65% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Hayes Cooper Center for Math Sc Tec
Hayes Cooper Center for Math, Science, and Technology sits on old Highway 61 in Merigold, a very small Mississippi Delta town in Bolivar County. It is part of the Cleveland School District and serves pre-kindergarten through sixth grade. After sixth grade, students move on to Cleveland Central Middle School and then Cleveland Central High School in nearby Cleveland. The school is not a charter school. Its magnet status was not reported.
The school serves a modest enrollment spread fairly evenly across its eight grade levels. Its student body is racially balanced, with white and Black students each making up close to half the enrollment and small shares of Hispanic, multiracial, Asian, and American Indian students. Every student qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, which places the school fully in a high-poverty context. Data on individualized education programs and English learner status was not available, so those populations cannot be described here.
On Mississippi's MAAP assessments, the most striking pattern is how proficiency climbs as students move through the upper grades. Third-grade results are the weakest, with fewer than half of tested students reaching proficiency in either math or English language arts. Fourth grade is mixed: math stays in a similar range, but ELA rises to where a clear majority are proficient. By fifth and sixth grade, the picture changes substantially. In math, the large majority of fifth and sixth graders are proficient, with sixth grade especially strong. ELA follows the same upward arc, reaching a very high proficiency level by sixth grade. Fifth-grade science results are also strong, with a large share proficient. No participation rates were reported for any test, and the state did not provide multi-year trend data, so it is not possible to say whether these results reflect improvement over time or a stable pattern. The contrast between lower-elementary and upper-elementary results is pronounced, though, and a parent may want to ask the school how it supports early-grade instruction and what accounts for the gains seen in the later years.
No graduation rate applies here, since the school does not include high school grades. Data on discipline, staffing, attendance, course access, and civil-rights indicators was not provided, so those aspects of school climate and operations cannot be assessed. Program offerings were not listed in the available data. The school's name signals a focus on math, science, and technology, but no specific curricular or program details were available to confirm what that emphasis looks like in practice.
Merigold itself is a quiet Delta community that has seen steady population decline over the past two decades. The town has a mayor-alderman government, a post office that has operated for many years, and a town hall on S. Front Street where the board meets monthly. No major employers, new housing developments, or commercial growth projects were identified. Po' Monkey's, a historic juke joint about a mile west of town, holds a Mississippi Blues Trail marker and is described as one of the few authentic juke joints still operating. No parks, libraries, or transit systems surfaced in available sources. For families considering the area, this is a rural, low-density place with limited civic infrastructure beyond the municipal building.
Housing in the zip code is quite affordable compared with both state and national benchmarks. The typical home value sits well below the statewide figure and far below the national one, and the price-to-income ratio is low. Home values have declined modestly over the past year, which reflects the broader population loss in the area rather than any localized market disruption. No rental data was available. Families looking to buy would find inexpensive housing stock, though the declining population and limited local amenities are part of the tradeoff.
The Cleveland School District brief did not surface any parent-relevant changes within the recent review window. A district consolidation related to desegregation occurred outside that window, but no current initiatives, program launches, or structural changes were identified. The district's strategic priorities were not available, so they are left out rather than guessed.
Taken together, Hayes Cooper presents a school where academic outcomes strengthen meaningfully in the upper elementary grades, with the early grades a softer area a parent may want to explore. It serves an economically disadvantaged but racially diverse student body in a small, affordable Delta town, feeding into Cleveland's secondary schools for the grades it does not cover.
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