The school's ideals of "self-direction", flexible scheduling and independent study, were intended to provide students with opportunities to direct themselves and to prepare them for college academic life.

In order to comply with a 1970 mandate to provide multicultural reading material, the board of education for Kanawha County took up a motion to purchase 300 different titles of new language arts textbooks.

[4] In September, students at George Washington High School began a 30-day walk out in protest of the removal of the books.

In 2005, it was the only high school in West Virginia to win a blue ribbon for excelling in No Child Left Behind requirements.

[citation needed] The school has many extra curricular and co-curricular activities, including baseball, softball, JROTC, football, volleyball, swimming, soccer, cross-country, golf, basketball, tennis, wrestling, lacrosse, track teams and cheerleading, many of which consistently compete for state championships.