Starting this school year, all first and second grade classes at Kramer Elementary will be combined. Kramer will be the first school in our leaning community to offer mixed-grade classes.
Last week I had coffee with Kramer principal Menay Harris, who filled me in on the reasoning behind these new mixed-grade classes.
“Developmentally it makes more sense for our kids because they’re interacting with a bigger age group,” she told me. “Plus, they’ll have the same teacher for two years, so there’s more familiarity there.”
These mixed age classes were tested out at the school last year, and results were so good, Harris decided to make the change across the board.
And this year, Kramer will also start offering dual-immersion classes, a new bilingual program we covered last month in Advocate.
“We have a lot of exciting changes coming to Kramer, so there’s a lot of good things in store for us. Last year was my first year at the school, so I really took that time to learn about the school. But this year I’m really going to kick into high gear there.”
Kramer recently earned an Exemplary status, the highest possible rating from the Texas Education Agency. It was the only school in the Hillcrest feeder pattern to earn that status.
