Joyner, Lawhon, Milam, Parkway, Pierce Street, Rankin and Thomas Street elementary schools have earned the PREPS Value Added Award for successful performance on statewide tests last spring. The awards were presented Dec. 7 at the 2007-2008 PREPS Winter Conference.
PREPS, or the Program of Research and Evaluation for Public Schools, is a private, nonprofit consortium. The PREPS Value Added analysis began in June 1997 and allows for comparisons of educational performance, taking into account (or holding constant) the impact of differences in socioeconomic background of the students considered in the research. The model is used to identify high performing schools among Mississippi districts.
Schools that are “adding value” are those considered to be performing higher than the statistical model predicted that they would perform based on their students’ socioeconomic circumstances.