Office of Innovation for Education Recognized for Outstanding Service to Arkansas

The College of Education and Health Professions recently announced the Office of Innovation for Education as the recipient of its 2026 Service to Arkansas Award.

The Office of Innovation for Education, one of the college's outreach units, has partnered with the Arkansas Department of Education since 2013, collaborating with educators across the state to ensure measurable impacts for all learners.

Throughout the 2024-25 academic year alone, the office impacted over 400 schools, nearly 15,000 educators and more than 200,000 students across Arkansas.

Many of the office's staff members, including Director Feng Jiang and Associate Director Crystal Beshears Duncan, attended the college's end-of-year meeting on May 1 to accept the award.

"The Office of Innovation for Education continues to engage in meaningful work that improves outcomes for students and educators alike," said Dean Kate Mamiseishvili. "Our college is proud to recognize them and their tireless efforts to transform education across Arkansas."

Mamiseishvili created the Service to Arkansas Award as part of the WE CARE strategic plan to acknowledge "a faculty or staff member, team or entire unit that has demonstrated extraordinary care for Arkansas and Arkansans through their research, outreach and/or educational activities."

The Office of Innovation for Education is made up of two teams that work together to pursue its shared mission. 

Its programming team serves every public school district in Arkansas by managing and analyzing student outcome data through ATLAS, the state's comprehensive K-12 assessment program, ensuring that the data is accurate, valid and reliable. The innovation team brings that data to life inside schools, helping communities understand what it means, build capacity to act on it and sustain a culture of continuous improvement.

In 2025, OIE was awarded $3.6 million to create a microcredential pathway for teachers, impacting more than 650 teachers and an estimated 60,000 students across all five regions of Arkansas. Simultaneously, OIE oversees a multi-million-dollar high-impact tutoring study serving the bottom 40% of students in four districts and is advancing evidence-based practices and leadership capacity for students with disabilities statewide through a five-year State Personnel Development Grant.

Several schools and organizations that work in partnership with the office shared how its work has impacted them through letters of nomination.

"Their service has not been episodic or superficial; it has been intentional, sustained and capacity-building in nature," wrote Brad Williams, principal at Mulberry High School. "The systems developed through this partnership will continue to benefit our educators and students well into the future."

Tyson Elementary Principal Shelly Poage said collaborating with the Office of Innovation for Education helped propel her school to being one of the top schools in Arkansas for growth and achievement. 

"Their commitment to empowering educators and fostering innovation has created a lasting positive impact on our school and, most importantly, on our students," Poage said.

Previous winners of the Service to Arkansas Award include Early Care and Education Projects in 2024 and the Arkansas Teacher Corps in 2025.

To learn more about the Office of Innovation for Education, visit their website.