About Adam
Chicago Public School Parent. Principal.
My name is Dr. Adam Parrott-Sheffer and I hope to earn your support as your representative on the Chicago School Board.
As a Hyde Park parent and a former principal, I have spent the past two decades working to make sure we have great schools for every kid here on the southside of Chicago.
My passion for this work comes from knowing how the Chicago Public Schools changed my family’s story. My grandparents met at Austin High School and their experiences there provided a foundation upon which they built their lives, their careers, and our family.
Through my work with superintendents, school boards, and principals in Chicago and across the United States I have seen that my family’s story is not unique but not as common as it should be. I have seen what is possible for our kids when students, families, teachers, and leaders come together to create joyful schools where each student thrives.
Adam Prioritizes Community
We need a school board to
- elevate the voices of parents and educators who know our schools and their needs best so that we can help our youth shine socially, emotionally, and academically.
- build a truly inclusive community that allows all students to feel valued, seen, and heard. We must go further to support LGBTQ students, students with disabilities, multilingual learners, and students experiencing uncertain housing or food scarcity.
- confront violence in our communities so that no family fears that their child will not make it home from school safely. One lost child is too many.
- invest in our neighborhood high schools so that all students leave college, career, and community-ready.
- provide early childhood options that are close to home, affordable, and prepare kids for success.
- champion policies that build and sustain the pipeline of Black and Brown teachers and leaders because we know that having teachers with a shared identity dramatically increases a kid’s likelihood of graduating.
- develop a capital plan focused on creating spaces of child-first contemporary learning instead of putting bandaids on costly buildings that do not serve our kids well.
- incentivize collaboration and community across all our schools whether they are neighborhood, selective enrollment, public charter, independent or parochial.
- ensure kids have increased access to books because we don't ban books. Ever.
I hope this list can be the start of a conversation. Over the coming months and years, I invite you to add to it.
Ultimately, I hope we can solve these challenges together and identify new, less urgent issues to tackle in service of all the youth in Chicago.
Adam Knows Our Schools
- Experienced award winning reading and special education teacher
- Award-winning principal who led team to double-digit increases in students on grade level in reading and math
- Chicago Public School parent volunteer recess aide, literacy room designer, room parent, and coach
- National expert on leadership entry for equity
- National expert and adjunct faculty at the Harvard Graduate School of Education on district improvement