The campus is located within the Nottingham Country subdivision, but is not within the Katy city limits.

[3] The school was named for James "Jimmy" Edgar Taylor (1912–1997), superintendent of the Katy ISD for 31 years.

[3] During his tenure, Katy ISD grew from a Class A district to one with two 5A high schools.

[citation needed] For the 2022-23 academic year, James E. Taylor High School enrolled 3,085 students, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

The school employed 189.23 full-time equivalent educators, resulting in a student-teacher ratio of 16.3:1.