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PAUL L DUNBAR LEARNING CENTER
School pathway
Test scores
STAAR 2023-24 . % Meets Grade Level or AboveWhat this means: On the STAAR, Texas's statewide test, about 43 of every 100 students at this school read at grade level and about 50 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Texas schools, those numbers are about 52 and 42. Reading scores are up about 22 points since 2020, while math scores are up about 12 points.
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyWhat this means: About 46% of students here test proficient in math and reading, well above the roughly 31% typical for Texas schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations ranks schools against others at the same poverty level, not by raw scores, so a school can post high scores and still fall short of its prediction, or post lower scores and still beat it. This school clears its prediction by about 16 points, placing it in Texas's top 10%.
7-year change
SY 2017-18 vs SY 2024-25About PAUL L DUNBAR LEARNING CENTER
PAUL L DUNBAR LEARNING CENTER is a medium-sized K-5 school in DALLAS, Texas, run under DALLAS ISD. The school caters to 608 students in grades pre-K through 5.
PAUL L DUNBAR LEARNING CENTER is one of 240 schools operated by DALLAS ISD, a district that caters to 140,630 students overall.
For racial and ethnic makeup, PAUL L DUNBAR LEARNING CENTER records that 60% of the student body identifies as Black. Beyond that, the school records 34% Hispanic, 4% multiracial. That is visibly more Black than the county at large, where the share is closer to 22%.
In terms of school funding signals, The school currently runs with 38 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 16.0:1. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 15.1:1, putting PAUL L DUNBAR LEARNING CENTER higher than the state norm the norm. Around 99% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. By comparison, Dallas County runs at roughly 77%, so the school's eligibility rate is meaningfully above the surrounding baseline.
On a demographically-adjusted basis, PAUL L DUNBAR LEARNING CENTER ranks in the top 10% of Texas public schools. The BeatsExpectations model, a per-state regression of composite proficiency on FRL share, predicts schools with this student profile to land around 30.6%; PAUL L DUNBAR LEARNING CENTER posts 46.3%, +15.7 points above that line.
Zooming out to the county, community-level numbers for Dallas County indicate the typical household earns roughly $76,547 per year, 36% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 11%. PAUL L DUNBAR LEARNING CENTER is one of 771 public schools in Dallas County (combined enrollment of about 459,645 students).
IRMA RANGEL YOUNG WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP SCHOOL is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.7 miles from this campus. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Among the 8 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), PAUL L DUNBAR LEARNING CENTER ranks 2nd on composite proficiency, above the local average of 40.3%.
Geographically, the school is in a metropolitan area.
Trend over the last 7 years. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at PAUL L DUNBAR LEARNING CENTER has climbed 7%, going from 570 students in 2018 to 608 in 2025. The Black share of enrollment decreased from 81% to 60% over that span. The student-to-teacher ratio rose from 14.3:1 in 2018 to 16.0:1 today.
On this page, the page collects discussion, questions, and updates around pickup logistics, teacher feedback, and after-school programs. The community welcomes input from current and former families.
Dallas County at a glance
View full county profileQuick facts
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