The school has acquired the lots at 98 Franklin and 84 Page and is currently in the process of selecting designs for the development of an expanded urban campus.

[6] Students are able to take native level classes in French and Chinese (and Spanish if there is sufficient demand) beginning in their freshman year.

International High School's students make yearly cultural, service oriented, and linguistic trips to multiple destinations across the world.

In 2017-18, groups of 10-20 students from grades 9 to 11 will travel to Vietnam, China and Tibet, Denmark and Germany, the American South, England, Ecuador, Galapagos Islands, Tahiti, Senegal, Thailand, and India and Myanmar for approximately two weeks.

The school also offers longer 6 to 8 week exchanges intended to enhance the students’ globally focused education outside the classroom and enrich their linguistic proficiency.

The trips often consist of exchange programs in which IHS students are hosted by local families in the foreign country.

In 2015-16, IHS students had the opportunity to undertake exchanges in France (Paris, Bordeaux, Tahiti), Spain, Bolivia, and Peru.

Examples of CAS projects in the past have been: an annual student-run TEDx program, a student organized community development project in Nicaragua, a fundraising evening of music and food for the Chigoli organization in Malawi, a student-organized and run summer volleyball class for girls at John Muir Elementary, a student founded and led LGBT club ("LASER") to raise consciousness about LGBT issues, among many others.

The school partners with an extensive list of non-profit organizations that the students regularly become engaged with, including Amigos de las Americas, Breakthrough San Francisco, Family House, Habitat for Humanity, John Muir Elementary After School Beacon Program, My Yute Soccer, Reading Partners, Rocket Dog Rescue, and Teens Teaching Elders Technology, among others.

IHS is also known for its international community service projects, most prominently raising money to build schools in Jemjem Legabatu, Ethiopia, and M'bour, Senegal.

[7] International sponsors twenty athletic teams that compete with other high schools throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.

[11] The Pavilion includes a black-box theater, a state-of-the-art film and video editing classroom, as well as music and visual arts studios.

Student engage in a broad range of artistic activities and classes there: from writing and directing one act plays to making short films, from painting murals to composing music.

Student-musicians also participate in the IHS orchestra, which rehearses twice a week after school in the fall culminating in a recital at the Florence Gould Theater in the Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco.

There are several major music concerts during the year: Songs for Senegal (in the Fall and used as a fundraiser for an IHS backed school in Senegal, consists mostly of small group pop/rock, jazz, and vocal performances), the Florence Gould Recital (for chamber, jazz, and acoustic performances in January), and two Rock/Pop/Jazz Concerts (in January and May).

The school partners with SF's Tech Shop in offering its IB design courses and participates in the Maker Faire in San Mateo, California.