The school was named after A. Y. Jackson, a Canadian painter and one of the founders of the Group of Seven.

Jackson was opened in 1970 under the North York Board of Education, as a grades 10 to 13 school.

[2] The school offers three Specialist High Skills Majors (SHSM) in the fields of Biotechnology, Business, and Information Communications Technology.

[3] It also offers three dual credit courses in Forensic Science, Introduction to Marketing, and Composition & Creativity, in collaboration with Seneca College.

[5] In addition, in the 2018–2019 school year, 87% of grade 10 students achieved the provincial standard for Literacy on their first attempt.