Established in 1865 by the American Missionary Society, Howard School was the first free public school in Hamilton County. In 1873, Howard School was incorporated into the Chattanooga School System by the Reverend E. O. Tate, a black congregational minister. Tate served as Hamilton County’s first Superintendent of Education until the formation of the Chattanooga Board of Education in 1873. The school was named after General Oliver Howard, Commissioner of the Freedmen’s Bureau.
The school is located on a 39-acre site and is divided into 6 distinct areas: main building, auditorium, cafeteria and fine arts center, vocational and technology wing, gym and the Teen Learning Center.

Thirty members of the Howard faculty are members of the Annenberg National Reform Faculty and meet monthly in Critical Friends Groups -- colleagueships that promote reflective thinking about teaching practices and the quality of student work. The faculty also includes two recipients of National Endowment for the Humanities Grants, the 1998 Hamilton County Teacher of the Year, and the 2001 Christy McAuliffe Teacher of the Year for the State of Tennessee.

Howard students have participated in the UTC Science Fair (1st place for two consecutive years), Duke University Academic Quiz Bowl, Law Day, Model UN, Day on the Hill with the Tennessee Legislature, SECNAV Academic Contest, Adopt-a-Highway, FBLA State Competitions and TMTA Math Competition. The school is in its fourth year of its service learning class. Forty-one students have received academic credit for their service with 30 businesses, including such diverse locations as the Creative Discovery Museum, The Chattanoogan, Erlanger Hospital, African American Chamber of Commerce and Southeast Tennessee Legal Services.

The school is a Title I school, which means that federal money is provided for instructional materials and additional personnel. Howard is also a part of the Carnegie Initiative, which provides $16,000,000 for high school reform in Hamilton County.