For the past several years, Carnegie Vanguard has been consistently ranked the top public high school in the Houston area and a top-25 public high school in the country by several major magazines and journals, including Newsweek, The Washington Post, and U.S. News & World Report.

[11] In November 2008, HISD proposed to rebuild Carnegie and Worthing and have the two schools share the same cafeteria.

[12][13][14] On December 4, 2008, Abelardo Saavedra, the HISD superintendent at the time, shelved plans for Carnegie and Worthing to share cafeterias as the proposal had insufficient support from the board of trustees.

[17] The former Sunnyside Campus has been used for military tactical training by multiple agencies, including the United States Army.

Parents, staff members, and students provided input for the design of the new CVHS campus.

[25] The district had initially intended for a new campus of the High School for Performing and Visual Arts to be built at the site that is occupied by the new Carnegie.

[8] The former Carnegie Elementary building had about 42,500 square feet (3,950 m2) of space, including the exterior corridors.

Lisa Gray of the Houston Chronicle said that the "shabby" campus was "far not only from most of its students' homes, but also from most Houstonians' consciousness.

"[22] Gray also said that "By accident, the old elementary school's layout promoted the kind of effortless mixing that the latest designs for offices and research facilities strive to encourage.

Carnegie Vanguard courses move at a quicker pace, cover more material, and are project based.

For the past several years, Carnegie Vanguard has been consistently ranked as a top 30 public high school in the country by several major magazines and journals, including Newsweek, The Washington Post, and U.S. News & World Report.

The school automatically accepts qualified students who have siblings that currently are in the ninth through eleventh grade at Carnegie, given there is enough space.

[29] Carnegie has no formal feeder patterns as it is a magnet school and serves students from all over the HISD area.

2019-2020 Ethnic Demographics:[30] 33% Hispanic 30% Asian 22% White 10% Black 4% Other 100% of students that graduate from Carnegie attend a 2 or 4 year college or university.

In November 2015 over 730 individuals signed an online petition asking the HISD athletics director, Marmion Dambrino, to have Carnegie remain in the UIL.