East Wake High

Located at 5101 Rolesville Rd, in Wendell, North Carolina, East Wake High is a big senior high that hosts 1,777 students (grades 9 through 12), overseen by Wake County Schools. That puts it 134% above the typical public school in North Carolina, which averages around 761 students.

Wake County Schools runs 198 schools in total, collectively educating 163,176 students. East Wake High is one of those campuses.

For racial and ethnic makeup, East Wake High lists that 43% of students identify as Black, with the remaining enrollment distributed across several groups; the rest is composed of 35% Hispanic, 16% White, 4% multiracial. By comparison, Wake County as a whole is about 19% Black, so the school skews meaningfully more Black than its surroundings.

Looking at the economic backdrop, Staff filings list 99 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 18.0:1 students per teacher. The state averages around 19.6:1, so this campus is tighter than the state norm typical. An estimated 64% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. That share is higher than Wake County's rate of about 42%.

After controlling for student poverty, East Wake High falls in the UNDERPERFORMING tier of the BeatsExpectations residual. Given its student profile, a typical campus would land near 59.4%; this one comes in at 33.8%, -25.6 points off the demographic line.

Zooming out to the county, ACS estimates for Wake County put median household earnings sit near $105,768, roughly 57% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and roughly 5% of residents live below the federal poverty line. In all, Wake County runs 237 public schools (combined enrollment of about 184,790 students), of which East Wake High is one.

The closest other public school is Wendell Middle, roughly 1.7 miles away. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. On composite proficiency, East Wake High comes 7th of 8 in the immediate cluster, behind the nearby-schools average of 45.1%.

Geographically, the school is in an outlying area.

Five-year trend. Over the past 7-year window, the student count ticked up 32%: 1,348 students in 2018 compared to 1,777 in 2025. The White share of enrollment declined from 27% to 16% over that span. The student-to-teacher ratio grew from 15.4:1 in 2018 to 18.0:1 today.

On this page, recent activity here tends to focus on pickup logistics, teacher feedback, and after-school programs. Parents, students, alumni, and staff are welcome to weigh in.