Alexandria City HS has an Army Junior ROTC program which participated in President Barack Obama's Inaugural Parade.

[5] T. C. Williams, a four-year high school, initially opened its doors to eighth graders, freshmen, sophomores, and juniors in 1965, and graduated its first class in June 1967.

[12] The gym of the original T. C. Williams building was named after Gerry Bertier, a member of the Titans' 1971 state championship football team who was paralyzed in a car crash and died 10 years later in a second auto accident near Charlottesville, Virginia.

The newly constructed basketball court was named in honor of the late Earl Lloyd on December 1, 2007.

ACPS announced it would begin a review of the school's name, with a public engagement portion to be held in the fall of 2020.

Williams sparked a similar movement to name another ACPS school, Matthew Maury Elementary.

[18] As of November 2017, Alexandria City High School's student body is 42.3% Hispanic, 28.8% African American, 22.0% White, 4.6% Asian, 0.2% Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander and 2.1% Multi-racial.

[19] Alexandria City High also has a thriving International Academy program, part of the wider International Academy Network, which serves to accommodate the large surge of immigrants to the Washington, DC, area by teaching English to non-native speakers alongside a rigorous, credit-earning high school curriculum.

The transition to a 9th grade campus was made in 1969 due to a large and fast growth of the elementary age population in the area.

The school also offers five foreign languages to students: Spanish, German, French, Latin, and Chinese.

These include the STEM academy and Governor's Health Sciences Academy, a collaborative effort with George Washington University that when successfully completed provides students with guaranteed admissions into the George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences.

The initiative, which began in the 2004–2005 school year, provides every student with their own personal computer, as well as campus-wide wireless Internet access.

The boys' basketball program, a consistent powerhouse with 12 district, 10 regional, and 2 state championships (most recently in 2008) has also gained statewide recognition.

Additionally, the soccer team captured a state title in 2014, with a 2–0 win over Washington-Lee High School.

T. C. and its former football coaches, Herman Boone and Bill Yoast, were the subject of the 2000 motion picture Remember the Titans, starring Denzel Washington and Will Patton.

The movie was a heavily fictionalized dramatization of the consolidation of Alexandria's three public high schools into one in the fall of 1971.

Hayes High School in Williamston, North Carolina, with five state championships and a 99–8 (.925) record in nine seasons, from 1961 through 1969.

[37] The climax of the movie is the fictionalized 1971 AAA state championship football game between T. C. Williams and George C. Marshall High School.

The dramatic license taken in the movie was to convert what was actually a mid-season matchup between T. C. Williams and Marshall into a made-for-Hollywood state championship.

The Titans program has produced notable players such as US Air force and Seattle Seawolves forward Capt.

[40] The program has produced several Olympic athletes, most recently Nick Peterson and Linda Miller, who represented the United States at the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney, Australia.

The TC Williams boys crew is the successor to the first high school rowing program in the Washington metro area.

Its band program continues to grow and get national coverage, playing across the country, most recently at the 2014 Sugar Bowl.

The school also houses thriving programs in Orchestra, Choir, Visual Art, and Theater, the latter of which is continuing to rise in popularity.

Drama Department has also received attention for choosing shows that are considered risky for high schools, including 2010s Chicago; Rent and The Laramie Project in 2011; 2012's The Island of Doctor Moreau, the 2014 production of A Chorus Line, and the 2015 production of Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992.