In 1872 Goodloe Harper Bell opened the first school sponsored by the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Battle Creek, Michigan. Since its start in 1872 the Seventh-day Adventist Church has grown to become the largest Protestant school system in the world. Currently the Church operates over 9,000 schools, colleges, and universities with over 110,000 teachers and over 2,000,000 students worldwide. In North American Division there is just over 900 schools, early childhood programs through university, serving 76,000 students.

Here in the Arkansas-Louisiana Conference the first school was started in Springdale, Arkansas in 1896. The first school in Louisiana was organized in Marthaville in 1899. Currently the Conference operates 10 schools. Nine of the schools offer kindergarten through grade eight (some offer pre-kindergarten) and the tenth school is Ozark Adventist Academy which is a day and boarding school which offers grades 9-12.

The mission of the Education Department is to support and assist our teachers as they develop the whole student, spiritually, mentally, physically, and socially in Christ-centered classrooms. We want our students to strive for academic excellence, choose Jesus daily, and to be a witness to those around them.