William+B.+Cooley+HS

= William B. Cooley, Sr. Health & Science Technology High School =

District: Providence Author: Kyle Hollenbeck

Introduction
William B. Cooley, Sr. Health & Science Technology High School is a high school which includes grades 9-12. It is located in a somewhat poorer area of Southern Providence and in it just about 400 students are enrolled. This report will give a summary of the schools Standardized Testing Results in comparison with the RI state average as well as describing the success of the teaching methods through using student responses, parent responses, and testing results. It will also describe the environment of the school and its accountability along with the 2008 SALT report results. The target audience for this report is any person who finds him or herself interested in what type of students attend Cooley High School, how the school performs as a whole, and the overall safety and environment of the school itself.

William B. Cooley is located in the Southeastern portion of Providence and resides in the 02905 zip code region just above Roger Williams State Park. Although most of its students are located within its 1.5 Mile radius buffer zone, it has students scattered throughout other various regions of Providence. The Southeastern "tip" of Providence (or the 02905 zip code region) is a fairly poor region with a median household income of $32,323, which is significantly lower than the countrywide median income of $41,994.[2] Along with this, 20.7% of the population is below the poverty level. Fortunately, Cooley is able to maintain a safe and supportive environment despite its location in a poorer section of Providence.

**Demographics**
[3]

William B. Cooley is a very diverse school having a large amount of students from various ethnic backgrounds. It seems to be in accord with the Demographics of Providence as a community seeing as how 68% of its students are Hispanic and 21% are African-American. Although only a mere 1% of the students who attend Cooley are Bilingual, it is shown by Information Works that 16% of the students who attend the school use English as a second language. According to SchoolMatters.com, 59.3 of Cooley's students are economically disadvantaged.[4] This seems to go in accord with Information Works data shown in that 81% of its students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch.

Assessment
[5]

As shown by the Performance Progress graph shown on the Information Works site, the performance of William B. Cooley's students dropped in the years 2008-2009. Although the drops are only 3, 2, and 7% in Mathematics, Reading, and Writing respectively, the effect of the drops is heightened due to the fact that RI high schools' SAT scores increased on average by 5, 7, and 4% in Mathematics, Reading, and Writing respectively.

Reading appears to be Cooley's strong point seeing as 34% of the 2008-2009 Grade 11 class reached proficiency whereas in Math and Writing for that year only 7 and 17% reached proficiency or higher. Cooley definitely needs to improve its percentage of students who are proficient in all three areas of Mathematics, Reading, and Writing, especially since the schools average for theses standardized testing sections all dropped from 2008 to 2009.

Accountability
[6]

Since there are fewer than 45 students of each "group" of students classified aside from those of a Hispanic background or those who are economically disadvantaged, those two groups of students are the only ones whose scores can be into account to be compared with the state target. As a whole, the school met the state target in both Mathematics and English Language Arts (ELA) earning a 54.1 and a 77.3 respectively. While they actually attained a higher average than the state target in ELA, their Math score was lower by 9.1 but still seen as meeting the state target due to significant progress towards the target itself.

Both Hispanic students and Economically Disadvantaged students surpassed the state target in ELA, earning a 77.6 and 76.2 respectively, but missed the state target in Math (56.9 and 53.3 respectively). However, Hispanic students as a whole were counted as having met the state target due to significant progress shown towards the target. Although Cooley has been given credit as meeting the state target for both Math and ELA index scores as a whole, the Math score is still below the target in reality and the ELA is only just above it. In other words, improvement is still needed.

Safe and Supportive Environments
[7] [8]

It would appear that student-teacher relationships are not as strong they should be at Cooley seeing as only 29% of the students feel as though they would be able to talk about academic issues they are having with their teacher. However, students do appear to be a bit more straight-edge than most Rhode Island schools concerning illegal substances and consumption of alcohol. This would show that although the teachers may not set up a completely academically comforting environment, it is still one that can have a good impression upon the students.

Also on the plus side, crime appears to be low in Cooley in comparison with other schools in RI. Considerably less students have been robbed at Cooley (19%) than the state average of RI (27%) schools shows and the percentage of students who have been hassled to buy drugs is about half that of the state average with only 16% of Cooley students being bothered and with a state average of 29%.

Curriculum and Instruction
[9]

From the teacher's perspective, Cooley appears to be above average in consideration of RI high schools concerning its Curriculum and Instruction. A little more than double the percentage of teachers (55%) than in the average RI high school (26%) state that Students provide feedback to one another at least weekly. In all the other categories polled for weekly habits the Cooley percentage appears to be higher than that of RI high schools in general.

Cooley seems to be in accord with the RI state average concerning its thoughts on parents participation in their child's education. Only a little less percent of Cooley students' parents (79%) than the state average (82%) feel that the community supports Cooley itself; however, 20% of the teachers at Cooley feel that the parents actually are supportive, whereas the state average for this feeling of parental support by the teachers is around 28%.

Pertaining to students' work habits and participation in class noticed by teachers, the percentage seems to be significantly above the state average. However, the feeling that the community is involved in the school seems to be less in the perspective of parents, teachers, and students, than the state average for these three. [10]

SALT Report 2008
For the most part the SALT report from 2008 agrees with the results of the Information Works site. The chart on the right is just a small example of this and shows a more in depth explanation of the chart above regarding the community's support of the school. Also many of the higher percentages from 2003 in the "Does not Do" section have gone down significantly since then showing that Cooley has improved in satisfying its community.

As shown by a chart graphing the ratings of students' perceived school climate, the students' perceptions have all improved since 2003. However, all five categories of "Overall Score", "Teacher's Provide Support", "Clarity of Behavioral Expectations and Rules", "Students show Commitment", and "Positive Student Interactions Take Place" were marked as being true "sometimes on average by the students at Cooley. The exact ratings given were 3.3, 3.2, 3.7, 3.6, 3.5 respectively. [11]

In regards to teacher-student relationship results found in the 2008 SALT Report, the teachers appear to have much faith in the students learning-capabilities as well as dedication to their schoolwork. When asked to rate student behavior, on average, the highest rating given out by teachers for students have a "Moderate Problem" was "Underachieving" with a mere 20% while the highest rating given on average for "Serious Problem" was "Persistence on Challenging Assignments" with just 8%.

In the students' reports of classroom instructional practices, it was shown that, on average, the students voted in between "Hardly Ever" and "Sometimes" on the following conditions: "Integration and Interdisciplinary Instructional Experiences", "Small Group Learning Activities", "Community Based Learning Opportunities", "Papers, Presentations, and Written Assignments", "Activities that Promote Understanding Different Cultures." These five categories averaged a 2.6, 2.8, 2.5, 3.0, and 2.9 amongst the students respectively. [12]This shows that the curriculum the teachers present is well-rounded and doesn't spend too much time on one certain aspect while leaving not enough time for another.

Conclusion
William B. Cooley, Sr. Health & Science Technology High School's strong point appears to be in its relatively safe and well-rounded environment rather than in its grades. Teaching practices may need to be improved in order to raise the scores but, from the information presented by the information Works site and the 2008 SALT report, it seems as though Cooley has relatively less crime than other schools in Rhode Island and has a relatively supportive community of its teaching practices (Although the teachers may not feel as supported as the parents claim they are being). One thing as far as student-teacher relationships that could be improved to help both environment and academics would be for the teachers to make sure that students feel comfortable enough to ask questions when they need help seeing as only 29% of the students feel as though they can talk with a teacher about academic issues. On the Academic sides of things Cooley needs to improve both its SAT scores as well as its Math and ELA index scores (more so Math than ELA). Not only are the percentages of proficient students in Math, Reading, and Writing low, but they also fell between the years of 2008 and 2009. Cooley seems to be doing considerably well with its school environment seeing as it is located in a fairly poor part of Providence and just needs to improve its students' grades in order to be considered one of the better of Rhode Island High Schools.

> U.S. Census Bureau. (n.d.). Providence. Fact Sheet. Retrieved October 17, 2010, from Link > Rhode Island Information Works. (2009). William B. Cooley. Learning and Achievement. Using Information. Retrieved November 7, 2010, from [] > School Matters. (2008). William B. Cooley/Health & Science Tech Academy - Providence, Rhode Island Schools. Retrieved November 7, 2010, from [] > Rhode Island Information Works. (2009). William B. Cooley. Learning and Achievement. Assessments. Retrieved November 7, 2010, from [] > Rhode Island Information Works. (2009). William B. Cooley. Learning and Achievement. Accountability. Retrieved November 7, 2010, from [] > Rhode Island Information Works. (2009). William B. Cooley. Safe and Supportive Environments. Student's Point of View. Retrieved November 7, 2010, from [] > Rhode Island Information Works. (2009). William B. Cooley. Safe and Supportive Environments. Health. Retrieved November 7, 2010, from [] > Rhode Island Information Works. (2009). William B. Cooley. Curriculum and Instruction. Teaching Practices: High. Retrieved November 7, 2010, from [] > Rhode Island Information Works. (2009). William B. Cooley. Curriculum and Instruction. Engaging Families and Community. Retrieved November 7, 2010, from [] > SALT Survey Reports. (2008). Cooley Health and Science Technology High School - PARENT REPORTS. Parent Reports of School’s Efforts to Involve Parents [PA-B.4 (1 OF 2)]. Retrieved November 7, 2010, from []
 * 1) ^ hs cooley.pdf. (n.d.). . Retrieved from []
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 * 1) ^ SALT Survey Reports. (2008). Cooley Health and Science Technology High School - PARENT REPORTS. Parent Reports of School’s Efforts to Involve Parents [PA-B.4 (1 OF 2)]. Retrieved November 7, 2010, from []
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