The school implements the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program.

During the 2012–2013 school year, there were about 430 students attending Cooper Academy.

The school was first approved to be built by the Fresno City Board of Education in November 1956[2] and opened as a junior high school (grades 7, 8 and 9) in the fall of 1959 with John Solo as the inaugural principal.

[4][5] The school is named for William John Cooper, a Californian, who served as United States Commissioner of Education under Presidents Coolidge, Hoover and Roosevelt from 1929 to 1933.

Author William Saroyan lived two blocks from the school from 1964 to 1981, sometimes interacting with students.