| Carey Wright | |
| Term Start: | July 1, 2024 Interim: October 23, 2023 – June 30, 2024 |
| Predecessor: | Mohammed Choudhury |
| Term Start1: | November 1, 2013 |
| Term End1: | June 30, 2022 |
| Predecessor1: | Lynn House (interim) |
| Successor1: | Kim Benton (interim) |
| Birth Place: | Prince George's County, Maryland, U.S. |
| Education: | University of Maryland, College Park (BA, MEd, EdD) |
Carey M. Wright is an American educator and consultant who has served as the Maryland Superintendent of Schools since 2023. She previously served as the Mississippi Superintendent of Education from 2013 to 2022.
Wright was born and raised in Prince George's County, Maryland.[1] She attended the University of Maryland, College Park, where she earned her Bachelor of Arts, Master of Education, and Doctor of Education degrees.
Wright started her teaching career in September 1972, first as a teacher in the Prince George's County Public Schools system and later with Howard County Public Schools, where she worked her way up to principal of elementary schools and director of special education for the school system.[2] She also served as an associate superintendent for Montgomery County Public Schools's Office of Special Education and Student Services from May 2003 to August 2009, afterwards serving as the chief academic officer and deputy chief of the District of Columbia Public Schools's Office of Teaching and Learning until May 2013. She has worked as a consultant for the Harvard Business School's Public Education Leadership Project since 2008 and has run her own consulting company, Wright Approach Consulting, since 2013.[3]
On September 25, 2013, the Mississippi Department of Education selected Wright as its state superintendent of education, succeeding interim superintendent Lynn House. She took office on November 1, 2013, and was the first woman to serve as permanent state superintendent and the longest serving superintendent in state history.
During her tenure, Wright earned a national reputation for implementing reforms that led to the "Mississippi Miracle", a period in which the state's math and literacy scores became the fastest-improving in the United States.[4] She also oversaw the implementation of the state's Literacy-Based Promotion Act of 2013, which required third-grade students to demonstrate basic reading proficiency levels to enter the fourth grade, and the Early Learning Collaborative Act, which provided funding to specialized collaborative prekindergarten programs in the state.[5] To accomplish this, Wright provided educators with teaching coaches, training programs, and high-quality instructional materials, highlighted individual schools and districts that achieved success through promotional videos and tours, and promoting the "science of reading" to teachers through evidence-based reading instruction.[6] According to the Urban Institute and the National Assessment of Educational Progress, Mississippi fourth graders had gone from ranking among the worst in the nation for reading proficiency in 2013 to ranking above the national average and were among the top readers nationwide by 2022.[7]
In May 2016, after the U.S. Department of Education issued guidelines requiring school systems to allow students to use restrooms and locker rooms consistent with their gender identity, Wright initially said that she would abide by the federal guidelines[8] but later said that she would take no action and continue adhering to the Religious Liberty Accommodations Act following pressure from Republican state lawmakers and Governor Phil Bryant.[9] [10] [11]
In March 2020, amid school closures from the COVID-19 pandemic, Wright called on the Mississippi State Board of Education to cancel state testing requirements for the 2019–2020 school year.[12] The board voted to do so a few days later.[13] In May 2020, Wright unveiled a $250 million digital learning plan to the Mississippi Legislature that would focus on providing students with laptops or tablets and WiFi access, training teachers and technology staff, and designing curriculum for eight high-quality programs;[14] the digital learning plan was included in the state's Equity in Distance Learning Act, which passed and became law without Governor Tate Reeves's signature.[15]
In April 2022, Wright announced that she would retire as state superintendent on June 30, 2022.[16] She was succeeded by Kim Benton,[17] who served in interim capacity until January 2023.[18]
On October 4, 2023, the Maryland State Board of Education named Wright as its interim superintendent of public schools,[19] succeeding Mohammed Choudhury, who had announced his resignation in late September 2023.[20] She applied to become the state's permanent superintendent after taking office,[21] a position the state Board of Education selected her for in April 2024.[22] As the Superintendent of Schools, Wright will oversee the implementation of the Blueprint for Maryland's Future, a sweeping multi-billion dollar education reform plan passed by the legislative in 2020, seek to improve the state's proficiency rates in reading and mathematics,[23] and aim to repeat many of the reforms she helped implement in Mississippi.[24]
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