Carey Wright, Maryland’s interim state superintendent of schools, said Thursday that she wants the job permanently.

Wright came out of retirement to lead the Maryland State Department of Education after Mohammed Choudhury stepped down as superintendent last week. In an introductory news conference, the former Mississippi schools chief explained her priorities as interim superintendent during a vital period for Maryland’s public education system.

Wright said she’ll be applying to stay in the role for a four-year term starting in July.

She will face an uphill battle guiding the state through the implementation of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, a 10-year education reform plan that costs billions of dollars.

Wright must also repair relationships with state lawmakers, members of the Accountability and Implementation board — which oversees the Blueprint — and internal staff. Some former staff members accused Choudhury of creating a toxic workplace in the state education department.

“I do believe that [the Blueprint] is a golden opportunity for the state, and I don’t take that lightly,” Wright said. She was joined Wednesday by Clarence Crawford and Josh Michael, president and vice president of the Maryland State Board of Education.

Here are three takeaways from Wright’s news conference.

Blueprint and improving Maryland’s math scores: Before leading Mississippi’s education department for almost a decade, Wright was a former Prince George’s County teacher and Howard County elementary school principal who also served as Maryland’s director of special education. She retired as superintendent of Mississippi’s State Board of Education in June 2022.

Wright, who will officially become Maryland’s interim superintendent on Oct. 23, said she’s not “in the weeds” of the Blueprint’s extensive details yet. She aims to use data to find out what Blueprint projects are working or not, and share that information with local districts and the public.

Math scores in schools across the state have dropped over the decade since Maryland’s fourth grade reading schools ranked second in the nation. Maryland also saw one of the steepest declines in math and reading scores between 2019 and 2022. Math and reading proficiency have improved in the past year but remain low.

Even before the coronavirus pandemic shuttered school buildings in Maryland, more than half of the state’s public school students regularly failed the standardized tests given in math and English in grades three through eight, as well as in some high school subjects. Maryland students in grades three through eight are 25% proficient in math statewide, with individual school districts ranging from 9% to 47% proficiency. Students in grades seven to 12 are 17% proficient in Algebra 1.

“Our math scores are abysmal,” Wright said. She plans to drill down on what the state is currently doing to meet student needs around proficiency.

Proponent of the “science of reading”: Under Wright’s leadership, Mississippi saw a reform in public education that resulted in a stunning rise in academic achievement. “We saw tremendous gains in not only in reading but in mathematics,” she said.

Mississippi teachers use a type of reading curriculum referred to as “the science of reading.” The method includes phonics, or sounding out letters. Mississippi also made changes like publicly funding 4-year-old prekindergarten, which Maryland is exploring with the Blueprint, and requiring third grade students who can’t read at the grade level to retake the grade.

“I know there’s sometimes people refer to the work in Mississippi as the ‘Mississippi Miracle,’ but it’s not a miracle,” Wright said. “It’s hard work over a long period of time and helping out teachers and leaders and students in whatever way that we can.”

Maryland does not have a retention policy like Mississippi, and Wright said she is “going to hold judgment” on whether such a policy would work in Maryland “until I see what we have in place.” Over time, Mississippi schools held back fewer students because more children were learning to read by the end of third grade, Wright said.

Experience forming partnerships: Wright worked closely with lawmakers in Mississippi to pass education policies, she said. She plans to be transparent with Maryland legislators about the education department’s strategies and projects it’s working on.

When it comes to education department staff, Wright will meet with each team in the department so they can get to know her.

“I’m a pretty open person,” Wright said. “I feel that I’m very welcoming to what people have to say and how we can go about making things better.”

In her role, Wright will have to work with the Accountability and Implementation Board, a seven-person state board that supervises how Maryland’s 24 school districts enact the Blueprint’s priorities. The state board and accountability board have to work as a team, Wright said: “That is critical.” So far, she’s met with one member of the accountability board.

“We both have a role to play in the Blueprint implementation,” Wright said. “So I think the more we can be on the same page, the better that we’re going to get the kinds of things accomplished that we want to get accomplished for our children.”