AVID is an award-winning national program designed to target students in the academic middle who are highly determined to prepare today for success in college and beyond tomorrow.  Each year our AVID Site Team, comprised of staff, administrators, students, and parents, participates in a highly selective review process to identify students from a diverse background to participate in our school’s AVID program.

Our students are enrolled in rigorous academic classes and have the opportunity to receive support from a highly qualified group of AVID-trained teachers to scaffold their academic growth and overall success.

Our 7^th grade AVID students have a thematic focus on careers and 8^th grade on colleges.  

This year our AVID program has been fortunate to partner with the University of Central Arkansas’s College of Education to serve as a focus site for their research on school-based advisory programs.  Students and faculty from the college will work with our AVID classes to evaluate the effects of advisory programs and their success with various students.

GT- Gifted and Talented

Dunbar Magnet Middle School is the Little Rock School District’s only school designated specifically for gifted and talented.  Dunbar’s Gifted and Talented (GT) program encompasses breadth and depth in core content areas while stressing creative thinking, risk-talking, curiosity, imagination, and interpersonal relations.  Students at Dunbar, who have undergone a rigorous battery of diverse assessments and have been identified as GT, are able to enroll in specialized classes taught by highly qualified instructors who have received additional graduate hours in meeting the needs of advanced learners.  Gifted and Talented students engage once a month in GT Exploration meetings. The GT Exploration meetings enhance self-awareness, goals-setting, and affective needs. All Dunbar GT students who submit a request to enroll in Little Rock Central High School’s GT Program will use the portal https://schoolchoice.lrsd.org for consideration. Dunbar is a direct feeder into Little Rock Central High School.