Climbing the Ladder of Reading Proficiency

The First Two Years of Atlanta’s Dunbar Learning Complex

By the Annie E. Casey Foundation

January 1, 2012

Summary

The Dunbar Learning Complex is part of Atlanta's Mechanicsville neighborhood, where many hard-working, low-income families live, work and play. The Dunbar Learning Complex occupies the same city block as a park, a new pool, playground and athletic fields in an effort to provide area children with high-quality educational and living opportunities. The learning complex is part of a comprehensive community change effort underway in Atlanta's Neighborhood Planning Unit V with support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation's Atlanta Civic Site. Since 2001, Casey has utilized research and data-informed best practices to improve outcomes for vulnerable children and families in this area by focusing on three interconnected results: education achievement, family economic success, and neighborhood transformation.

Table of Contents

Key Takeaway

Atlanta's Dunbar Learning Complex

In Atlanta, children and their parents are benefiting from an innovative learning complex that provides high-quality education to children from six weeks of age through fifth grade, ensuring that every child is healthy and ready for school by age 5 and reading to learn by age 8.

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