The school sits in the Tenleytown neighborhood, at the intersection of Chesapeake Street and Nebraska Avenue NW.

[9] What is now Jackson-Reed High School was built on a patch of land acquired in 1930, known by the neighboring Tenleytowners as "French's Woods".

In March 1934, DC commissioners awarded the contract to build the school to the lowest bidder: McCloskey and Co. of Philadelphia.

Jay Childers, the author of The Evolving Citizen: American Youth and the Changing Norms of Democratic Engagement (2012), wrote that this indicated racial tension in the school.

Bonner worked briefly at the main DCPS office before accepting a job at Howard University School of Education.

[citation needed] The following year, DCPS chancellor Michelle Rhee appointed as principal Peter Cahall,[13] a former teacher and administrator with the Montgomery County Public Schools.

[16] For the 2010–11 school year, Wilson held classes in a temporary space at the University of the District of Columbia.

[19] Cahall left his post in December 2014, in the middle of the school year, after DCPS announced that his contract would not be renewed.

[21] In spring 2015, a panel headed by teachers and other employees, parents, and members of the surrounding community examined candidates for the principal position.

Wilson supported segregation, and his works as a historian are pillars of the Dunning School approach to the American Civil War and Reconstruction era.

Such discussions gained traction in 2015 when Princeton University students argued for removing Wilson's name from campus buildings.

Proponents of changing the name argued, as the Washington Post put it in 2019, that "the community in Northwest Washington has to acknowledge that the federal government — after Wilson left office — uprooted established black communities to create the upper-income, largely white enclave it is today.

[citation needed] After a citywide call for nominations drew more than 2,000 submissions, the Mayor settled on nine finalists and put the list to a community vote.

[30] School boundaries encompass everything west of 16th Street, NW; all of southwest Washington north of the Anacostia River; and parts of Capitol Hill southeast.

[34] Students are required to complete 24 credits for graduation, including courses in Art, English, Health and Physical Education, Mathematics, Music, Science, Social Studies, and World Languages.

The football team played an exhibition season in 1936–37 and officially joined the Inter-High Series a year later, in the fall of 1937.

In the DCSAA Class 2A state playoffs, they lost in the semifinal game against St. John's College High School by a score of 55-52.

In 2009, the team, led by seniors Kathleen McLain and Rachel Bitting, played Georgetown Visitation in the Congressional Bank Softball Classic in which the softball champion of the DC public schools played the champion of the DC private schools.

[42] In 2012, Jay Childers wrote that the quality of the publication and the publishing frequency of the Beacon declined as the school had increased difficulties.

[12] Historically, the school administration did not, and still does not, review Beacon articles before publication,[43] even though the U.S. Supreme Court in Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier stated that principals have the right to have control over newspaper content.

In August 2015, Principal Kimberly Martin announced that the school would require the newspaper to allow her and her staff to review all articles before publication.

[47] In December 2023, after the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, school officials denied a request by the school's Arab Student Union to show The Occupation of the American Mind, a controversial film that accuses Israel of disproportionately influencing American media and public perception of the Israel-Palestinian conflict; officials said the club had failed to follow the process for getting the event approved.

[48] In April 2024, the Arab Student Union, represented by the ACLU of DC, sued the school, alleging that it violated members First Amendment rights.

[50] In April 2013, Jackson-Reed was named a Green Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education in recognition of "being good stewards of the environment.