Special to the Chickasaw Journal

HOULKA - Houlka Attendance Center has been recognized at the recent statewide conference of the Program of Research and Evaluation of Public Schools (PREPS) for being named a Value Added School. PREPS is a private non-profit consortium of school districts whose purpose is to develop and implement educational products and services that help man-

age and support districts' efforts to demonstrate improvement in their instructional programs. PREPS is supported by the College of Education at Mississippi State University and is housed in the Center for Educational Partnerships, the service division of the college. Although PREPS is supported by the university, its governance is held entirely by its member school districts. Collaboration among member

districts enables each district to benefit from the development of products and services that no single district is capable of developing alone.

The Value Added Award began in 1997 to recognize those schools that are performing significantly better than other schools with comparable socioeconomic circumstances. PREPS uses the school performance classifications determined by the State Department of Education under the Mississippi Statewide Accountability System and the school socioeconomic indicator to make its selections for this award.

Houlka Attendance Center is one of the 166 schools named as the 2008 PREPS Value Added Award recipients. The award was presented during the PREPS Winter Conference, December 9-10, 2008, at the Pearl River Resort in Choctaw, Mississippi.