Article by: Sarah Coleman of Arkansas Money and Politics
Photo by: Arkansas Money and Politics
Jermall Wright, superintendent of the Little Rock School District since 2022, is a strategic leader with a passion for teaching and education administration.
Originally from Florida, Wright said he knew he wanted to go into education from the time he started teaching his first Sunday school class to kindergarteners when he was in sixth grade.
“I’ve always loved teaching, and I always knew I wanted to be a teacher,” Wright said. “Before I left high school, I knew that I wanted to major in education because of the relationship I had with my high school principal.”
Wright also loved being a student. He earned his bachelor’s degree in social science secondary education and his master’s in educational leadership from the University of North Florida. He went on to earn a specialist degree in special education from the University of Florida, and his doctoral degree in leadership for educational equity, specializing in early childhood special education from the University of Colorado at Denver.
Before joining the Little Rock School District, Wright had three decades of experience in public education. Beginning his career in 1997 as a teacher in Florida, Wright quickly transitioned to administrative roles. Wright is also an experienced college and university instructor, having served in teacher preparation programs in two states and Washington, D.C.
During his time as a principal, he led elementary and secondary schools in Florida, Washington D.C. and Colorado. In 2017, he joined the Birmingham City School District in Alabama as chief academic and accountability officer. Wright was then hired in 2019 by the Mississippi State Board of Education as the founding superintendent of the Mississippi Achievement School District, a position he held until accepting his current role.
“Arkansas is the seventh state that I’ve lived in while working in education,” Wright said. “My biggest goal in any district is always to make sure that we significantly increase student achievement. My goal here in Little Rock is to make a big dent in the disparities that currently exist when it comes to academic achievement of Black students, and students of color in general.”
Upon joining LRSD, Wright launched his 100 Day Plan, which had several goals, most of which were based in collaborating with internal and external stakeholders, including parents and community partners, reviewing all major systems and launching superintendent advisory councils. The 100 Day Plan was also focused on establishing a culture of “trust, transparency, learning, leadership, joy and love.”
With experience working in urban and rural school districts, Wright said he believes the obstacles students face in Little Rock mirror those in similar school districts. While poverty remains an ongoing obstacle for many students in the district, Wright continues to push students and educators to be achievement minded.
“I don’t use poverty as an excuse, but of course, the impact of poverty in society at large plays out in education just like it plays out in everything else,” Wright said, adding that about 80 percent of the district’s students qualify for free and reduced lunch.
Wright has also instilled the expectation that educators both expect and believe that kids can excel in LRSD, regardless of obstacles and disparities.
Wright has a track record of turning around schools, and he approaches his work in a way that demonstrates that. During his time in Denver, he improved schools by at least two performance metrics. Throughout three years in Mississippi, he saw graduation rates improve by double digits in two districts, allowing for state accreditation violations to be cleared. He also saw his former district’s first group of students in the Mississippi Delta who were on track to earn their associate degrees from Mississippi Delta Community College.
“From all of my experiences, I’ve developed a set of core values, and those core values are deeply rooted in not just the belief that kids can achieve and the power of education, but also in the power of education to right wrongs,” Wright said. “I believe in the transformational power that an educator can have in the lives of kids.”