The top reported proficiency rate is 45% in English language arts. The lowest is 25% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Cramer Junior High School
Cramer Junior High School sits in Essexville, a small residential community on the Saginaw River in Bay County. The city describes itself as a bedroom community where residents commute to jobs across the Saginaw-Bay City-Midland region. The Woodside Avenue corridor serves as the main commercial spine, with City Hall and a modest collection of convenience and specialty businesses. The Saginaw River waterfront supports bulk-storage operations for petroleum products, cement, stone, and agricultural products, but no major employers are headquartered in Essexville itself. The population has been slowly declining for decades, and the closure of Hampton Square Mall in nearby Hampton Township removed a former commercial anchor from the immediate area. The city's small geographic footprint limits large-scale development, and publicly reported sources identify no major new housing projects.
The housing market here is relatively affordable. Typical home values sit well below both the state and national benchmarks, with a price-to-income ratio that looks manageable by national standards. A substantial share of single-family homes are owner-occupied, and the estimated monthly mortgage cost runs below what rent would cost in many markets, making ownership comparatively accessible for families drawn to the area. The community is quiet and low-scale in character, with limited street life. The Essexville-Hampton Riverwalk Pier along the river is a local draw for walking and fishing, and Defoe Park provides green space, but there is no fixed-route transit system and no standalone public library branch identified in available sources.
Cramer serves grades five through eight as a regular public school in the Essexville-Hampton Public Schools district. The enrollment is moderate for a junior high grade band, with each grade cohort close in size. The student body is predominantly white, with a small Hispanic presence and a small share of students identifying as two or more races. Other racial and ethnic groups are represented in very small numbers. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals. Data on students with individualized education programs and English learners was not reported, so those population sizes are unknown here.
On state assessments, the academic picture is mixed. Math proficiency is soft across every grade, with the lowest results in fifth grade and modest improvement by seventh before dipping again in eighth. English language arts results run higher in the middle grades and then jump sharply in eighth grade on the PSAT, where most students cleared the proficiency bar. Science proficiency sits in a moderate range for both tested grades, and social studies follows a similar pattern, with eighth-grade results landing at a stronger level than fifth-grade. Taken together, the school's overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades places it above the midpoint among districts in Bay County, close to the middle of a fairly narrow county range. That positioning suggests Cramer is performing in line with or modestly above its immediate neighbors, though the math results are a soft spot a parent may want to look into further with the school.
Several pieces of information that would help round out the picture are absent. No program offerings were provided, so details on advanced coursework, extracurriculars, music, arts, athletics, or career-exploration options are unavailable here. No staffing, class-size, attendance, chronic-absenteeism, or discipline data was reported. No civil-rights data was included. Because Cramer is a junior high serving only through eighth grade, it has no graduation rate, and that metric does not apply to this school. The district brief for Essexville-Hampton Public Schools turned up no specific recent changes of lasting impact, so there is little to report on district-level initiatives or transitions.
What a family finds at Cramer is a mid-sized junior high in a quiet, affordable, residential community, with academic results that hold their own within Bay County, a clear strength in eighth-grade literacy, and a math profile that sits below where most parents would want it. The school sits in a district serving both Essexville and surrounding Hampton Township, with schools distributed across the area rather than clustered on a single campus. Families who prioritize a smaller community setting, homeownership within reach, and a school performing near the middle of its county peer set may find this a reasonable fit, while those who want richer program detail or stronger math outcomes would benefit from asking the school directly.
See more original research from School Decision →