During the 1970-71 school year a small number of progressive Caucasian students voluntarily transferred to Booker T. Washington in a special program called "Metro."

As part of this policy, Booker T. Washington became a magnet school; it no longer had a home neighborhood from which students were accepted.

A racial quota system was established and, until the 2004–2005 school year, 45% of the students accepted identified themselves as "white," 45% as "black," and 10% came from other ethnic categories.

[7] The fourth home of the Booker T. Washington High School opened at 1631 E. Woodrow Place in September 1950, graduating its first class in 1951.

[5] Booker T. Washington is accredited by the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) to grant the IB Diploma to students who complete the two-year programme.

Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate courses are taught in English, math, social studies, science, computer health, foreign language, and the arts.

The study identified specific academic skills that should to be taught to high school students to prepare graduates for college.

The study focused on English, math, and science courses, and claimed that Booker T. Washington was "doing things right.

"[8] The school offers eight world languages: Spanish, French, German, Latin, Chinese, Japanese, Italian, and Russian.

Booker T. Washington has active exchange programs with China, Japan, Russia, Germany, Mexico, Paraguay, Venezuela, India, and many European countries.

The magazine ranked high schools according to the ratio of Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate tests taken by all students to the number of graduating seniors.