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Monday, December 6, 2010

Education Week: Volunteers Are Ready—All Schools Need to Do Is Ask

Education Week: Volunteers Are Ready—All Schools Need to Do Is Ask

Volunteers Are Ready—All Schools Need to Do Is Ask

—Luis Diaz

As the holidays approached last year, I wrote a column for my newspaper about Spencer Lloyd, an energetic young choir teacher who was finding ways to bring excellence to one of the worst-performing schools in Indiana.

The 26-year-old Hoosier is one of those teachers they make movies about. Passionate and driven, he had convinced his sometimes skeptical students that they could excel in a building where few did. He understood the cruel challenges facing many of the students in his high-poverty school but he refused to accept excuses. Day after day, he counseled his students, made clear he cared about them, and then did anything he could—including sing, dance, and impersonate anyone from Jack