The Dunbar Learning Complex Celebrates Its Two-Year Anniversary

The Atlanta Civic Site sup­ports a birth-through-third-grade strat­e­gy that aims to ensure all chil­dren in the Dun­bar Learn­ing Com­plex are pro­fi­cient read­ers by the end of third grade. The com­plex com­bines two edu­ca­tion­al insti­tu­tions under one roof: the Ear­ly Learn­ing and Lit­er­a­cy Resource Cen­ter (ELL­RC), serv­ing chil­dren from age six weeks through pre‑K, and Dun­bar Ele­men­tary School, which offers pre‑K through fifth-grade class­es. Stan­dards, cur­ricu­lum, assess­ment and instruc­tion from pre‑K to third grade are aligned across the two schools to ensure stu­dents are read­ing on grade level.

The Dun­bar Learn­ing Com­plex opened in Jan­u­ary 2010 and cel­e­brat­ed its two-year anniver­sary with an event on May 2. The civic site and its part­ners marked this mile­stone by cel­e­brat­ing the ear­ly but promis­ing results the com­plex is see­ing among chil­dren and fam­i­lies in NPU‑V. More than 200 par­ents, staff, part­ners, fun­ders, elect­ed offi­cials, edu­ca­tion­al advo­cates and pub­lic agency lead­ers attend­ed the cel­e­bra­tion, which includ­ed the release of Climb­ing the Lad­der of Read­ing Pro­fi­cien­cy, a report high­light­ing the gains achieved by chil­dren at the com­plex. The event also hon­ored the teach­ers and staff who have made those gains possible.