Welcome to Dunbar Elementary School, a K-5 community school where our rich history spans nearly a century of serving our beloved neighborhood! Steeped in tradition yet forward-thinking, we are proud to announce the Institute for Teaching, Learning, and Leading, elevating Dunbar as a beacon of educational excellence. This helps distinguish us as a destination school where students and staff work together to develop creative and critical thinking and decision-making skills. We serve as a demonstration site for the district with the following distinguishing features:

• research-based curriculum with a focus on innovation and personalization
• a collective community building a school of excellence
• significant job-embedded professional development time/planning time for teachers
• implementation of curriculum resources with fidelity and specialist support to accelerate learning 
• integration of whole child student and staff wellness
• implementation of Phoenix Growth Performance System (GPS) as designed
• student-centered coaching with time built into your schedule for planning and guidance
• opportunity to accelerate mastery of teaching practices and leadership
• opportunity to innovate and create and grow into leadership roles
• collaborative teaching teams
• integrating hands-on, problem-based learning
• technology-rich learning environment that takes learning beyond the walls of the school

Grades K-5 Academics

A strong foundation of learning in the primary grades leads to lifelong learning success. By offering high quality instruction aligned to the rigor of the K-5 Arizona state standards, classroom lessons are planned and implemented in the areas of foundational reading, writing, mathematics, science and social studies. Teachers provide engaging instruction using standards-aligned resources and instructional best practices to ensure every student learns and achieves in every grade level and subject area.

Our programs are designed to meet the needs of all students quickly and effectively through strong grade-level instruction. Staff uses data-based decision making to provide appropriate evidence-based intervention and enrichment opportunities.

To continue building and sustaining our collaborative learning community, teachers meet regularly within and across grade levels and participate in professional development.

Grades 6-8 Academics

High-quality instruction aligned to the rigor of the state standards continues in grades six through eight. Classroom lessons are planned and implemented in the areas of English language arts (ELA), mathematics, science and social studies.

Students read both quality literature and informational text. The emphasis is on critical thinking skills to make connections to and across texts as well as citing text to justify responses. Writing is embedded in all content areas. Our core mission is to ensure that every child is achieving at or above grade level in each subject area. Our intervention programs are designed to identify remediation and enrichment opportunities quickly and effectively for each and every child through data-based decision making. We believe that with strong and effective instruction, children will grow.

To continue building and sustaining our collaborative learning community, teachers meet regularly within and across grade levels and participate in professional development.

The program is based on research of best practices for middle level students ages 11-15. Our program promotes a sense of self-actualization, the realization of one’s own talent and potential that serve as a motivation for success.

Opportunities for collaboration and presentation of conceptual understanding of learning in multiple ways are incorporated into the lesson and assessments.

The goal of our program is to ensure students are well prepared for the transition to high school.