Public High School Review: Is Warren East High School the Right Place for Your Kids?

I have put in over 70 observation hours of high schools around Bowling Green as a part of my teaching certification at Western Kentucky University. One of the schools I observed at was Warren East High School. Warren East High School is located on the outskirts of Bowling Green, Kentucky. It is surrounded by the rural portion of Bowling Green. The area is a lot less populated than the rest of town. More farmland and factories than stores and businesses are found in this area of the city. The positive of this type of location is that it is a very peaceful place in town for a public high school to be located. The Warren East Middle School is located just next door to the high school so that is a plus if you have several children of different ages. The housing prices are much cheaper(of what I've heard) on this part of town compared to the rest of Bowling Green, But as I said earlier their is not a whole lot on this side of town.

As for actual school building, it is in good condition. I don't know exactly how old the school is but the building and it's classrooms have been well maintained over the years. I would say the building's overall cleanliness and structure compares favorably to Bowling Green and Greenwood High Schools' buildings, two other schools to which I have previously observed at.

Having done some research on all three of these major high school in Bowling Green, I have found that Warren East test scores have consistently been just below Greenwood and Bowling Green High Schools' scores. Not that it isn't a good place to send your students if you are looking for your child to excel academically, but Warren East typically has more of it's students go straight into the workforce out of high school. This could be a part of why their scores are lower. The students may personally place a lower emphasis on their schoolwork if they know they are going to start a career after high school where excellent grades and/or test scores are not seen as very important. All of the teacher's that I observed at Warren East were very innovative in their teaching practices and were seeming to do very good jobs in reaching the students.

The school has plenty of extra-curricular activities that it employs, but the majority of the emphasis seems to be placed on athletics, primarily basketball. This is no different throughout Bowling Green(or Kentucky for that matter) because basketball is king in this city and probably always will be. The men's basketball team has been tabbed by many locals to be one of the up and coming programs in the Warren County area. They have been improving for the last couple of years and seem to be poised to have a breakout season fairly soon. The girls basketball team is one of the best teams in the state. They won their district again last season. And their best player was offered a basketball scholarship at Vanderbilt University.

So, as you can see Warren East has a few drawbacks but it's peaceful location and the nice surrounding neighborhood are definitely strong reasons for considering this high school in the rural portion of Bowling Green, Kentucky.