Philosophy is what Jackson, 38, tasked himself with changing at Spencer, believing that if he could affect the culture, he could turn around the school. In doing so, Spencer is expanding beyond its walls and into its neighborhood.
Because to “fix” a school, to make it work for its children, a school must meet the needs of the whole child.
So by luring and letting parents in, this school is slowly climbing out of a hole and developing into a place that teaches its children by serving their community.
Spencer, at 214 N. Lavergne, is a “technology academy,” one of just five Chicago Public Schools in struggling neighborhoods that focus on computers. But it’s open to all. No lotteries or entrance tests are required. Any family showing two bills with an address in the footprint around Lake and Laramie is welcomed into the school named for a Victorian-era English philosopher who coined the phrase “survival of the fittest.”
Nearly every Spencer student is black.
Almost all eat free or reduced lunch – educational jargon for poor. About 30 of the 722 enrolled are homeless. Many families get by on state aid.
The Austin community where the school sits is not only Chicago’s largest – it’s also the deadliest. So far in 2012, it has had the most homicides in the city – 23, nine more than the next neighborhood. It topped 2011 with 30 murders.
Here, Spencer Academy is doing something right.
For one, the school got off CPS probation just last year, four years after Jackson introduced a cultural change.