Most Stanton students attend some form of college after graduation, whether four-year or two-year institutions, local, national, or international.

[4] Shortly after the end of the Civil War, a group of African Americans from Jacksonville organized the Education Society, and, in 1868, purchased the property on which the Old Stanton School was built.

Financial problems, however, delayed progress on the building until December of that year, when the school was built and incorporated through the aid of the Freedmen's Bureau.

This wooden structure was named in honor of Edwin McMasters Stanton, President Abraham Lincoln's second Secretary of War.

He was an ardent champion of human rights and an advocate of free school education for Negro boys and girls.

Northern white teachers were employed until the county leased the property for the purpose of opening a public school.

They were Robert B. Archibald, S. H. Hart, A. L. Lewis, J. W. Floyd, W. L. Girardeau, I. L. Purcell, B. C. Vanderhorst, J. E. Spearing, and W. H. H. Styles.

Stanton became the main focus for the education of black children in Duval County and surrounding areas.

Principal James Weldon Johnson, an alumnus, started the move toward a high school department.

Students found the use of "good girl" to praise those with attire deemed appropriate to be demeaning, and took to social media with the hashtag #scpgoodgirl.

[7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] Stanton competes in the Gateway Conference,[15] a collaboration between most public high schools in Duval County.

Its completion in 2019 made Stanton the last public high school in Duval County to upgrade to a rubber track.

Stanton's sports include cross country, basketball, football, wrestling, weightlifting, flag football, soccer, track and field, swimming and diving, lacrosse, bowling, volleyball, tennis, baseball, softball, golf, and competitive cheerleading.

[19][20][21][22][23] U.S. News & World Report ranked Stanton at ninth place on its 2008 list of America's Best High Schools.

Stanton perennially leads the Jacksonville metropolitan area in the number of National Merit Scholarship recipients, and consistently ranks in the top three in the state.