Teaching was always her calling. From the time Pam Adamson graduated from Middle Tennessee State and took a job as a math teacher at a junior high school in her small farming community to her tenure as chairperson of the Clayton County School Board, Adamson was drawn to the evolving minds of young students.
“The kids are what got me here,” she said, reflecting on her half-century of work in education. “It’s a calling.”
She spent 18 years teaching math before stepping into a one-year role as an instructional teacher, a move that shifted her away from direct classroom instruction.
“I wanted to go back to being the math coordinator,” she said.
From Classroom to Curriculum Leadership
As an instructional teacher, Adamson worked with educators and helped develop curricula rather than teaching students directly. While the role was influential, she missed the closeness and daily interaction she shared with her students.
Throughout her career, Adamson formed lasting personal connections—some of which remain vivid decades later.
One was a shy young girl who confided in Adamson about marrying an older man shortly before graduation. Despite Adamson’s concern and efforts to dissuade her, the student followed her own path.
The kids are what got me here!
Pam Adamson
“They are still married today,” Adamson said with a smile.
Another was a struggling student who required extra help outside regular class hours. With Adamson’s guidance, he improved steadily and found confidence in math. He later shared his plans to become a Marine.
“He died in a car accident before he was able to join the Marines,” Adamson said.
Clayton County Becomes Home
Adamson moved to Clayton County in 1969 after marrying her husband, a county native. She was quickly hired at North Clayton Junior High, where she taught for 18 years before transitioning into instructional leadership roles.
Over time, she began teaching teachers—leading math courses designed to improve classroom instruction.
“Many of them told me, ‘This is how I’m supposed to be teaching,’” she said.
Long before “data-driven instruction” became a standard phrase in education, Adamson used analytics to guide her lesson planning, studying test results and student work to improve outcomes.
She later earned a master’s degree in mathematics, along with specialist and add-on degrees in Educational Leadership from Georgia State University.
Accreditation, Advocacy, and Accountability
Adamson’s expertise extended nationally. She taught “hands-on equations” courses for teachers across the country and later worked with AdvancED, assisting schools with accreditation and renewal processes as a team lead.
Despite the travel, Clayton County remained home.
She returned to serve as Assistant Superintendent for four years before the school system lost accreditation in 2008 following a Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) ruling. The decision cited dysfunction, abuse of power, and ethics failures by the Clayton County School Board.
The fallout was severe. Approximately 4,000 students left the system, and the county’s ability to attract new businesses was damaged.
“My husband told me that my experience was needed and that I should run for the school board,” Adamson said.
Leadership on the School Board
In 2010, Adamson ran unopposed for the District 1 school board seat. Two years later, she was elected chair and served the remainder of her six-year term in that role.
In the 2014 partisan election, she won with 98.9% of the vote. However, when elections shifted to a nonpartisan format in 2018, she lost in the primary with about 35% of the vote.
Adamson remains critical of politics in education.
“Some people don’t care about the kids,” she said.
She later served as Georgia’s state math coordinator—a position she described as politically fraught.
“It was a nightmare,” she said.
Returning to the Classroom
Adamson ultimately returned to what mattered most: teaching. She spent the final four years of her career at Mt. Zion Christian School before retiring.
In retirement—jokingly calling herself “a senior nobody”—she spends her days caring for a group of feral cats and sharing their photos with anyone willing to look.
She remains in contact with former students who still check in on her, long after leaving her classroom.
Her career may have ended, but her purpose did not.
“The kids are what got me here,” Adamson said. “And it is the kids that kept me here.”