In 1979, Annapolis High moved to its present location on Riva Road outside the city limits.

Its former buildings now house Bates (which has been a grades 6 to 8 middle school since 1989) and the Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts.

program is a rigorous college-preparatory curriculum for grades 11 and 12 that emphasizes critical thinking and features a strong international focus.

[13] Annapolis High publishes a school newspaper (The Anchor), a yearbook (The Wake), a literary & arts magazine (Perception), and produces a newscast (Pantherama/P:tv).

APEX Arts is the now newest option of Magnet programs Anne Arundel County has to offer.

After the school's standardized test scores failed to meet federal Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) standards, Anne Arundel County Schools Superintendent Kevin M. Maxwell required the school's entire staff — including the principal, administrators, teachers, secretaries, and custodians — to reapply for their positions in the fall of 2007, a controversial move termed "zero-basing" that is one of several reform options authorized by the Maryland Department of Education and the federal No Child Left Behind law.

Within 30 months of zero-basing, the school successfully made an academic turnaround and met AYP standards in two consecutive years[29][30][31] and increased the number of students who passed the Maryland School Assessment 34 percentage points in English and 19 points in math.

[33] As of the 2011–12 school year, Annapolis High did not make AYP despite extensive efforts by teachers to do so.