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Mostly Cloudy North Shore parents react to curriculum decision
N.S. parents give AP, IB courses an A plus
Last month, North Shore High School made the decision to continue offering AP and IB courses to students. In December, as part of a comprehensive annual review of the International Baccalaureate and Advanced Placement programs, the board reviewed research and data, as well as feedback from faculty, students and university admissions counselors on each of the programs.
The administration presented their recommendations and the Board of Education began weighing the possibility of offering either an Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate program, but not both, as the district does now. But on Jan. 20, the school board made a recommendation to maintain the curriculum as is, allowing students to continue choosing between the two.
“My oldest son is taking both AP and IB classes, and is an IB diploma candidate,” Elizabeth Winchester, the parent of two students enrolled at North Shore, said. “Offering both AP and IB options to all students sets our district apart from others and raises the bar. I’m grateful that our students have the option to take both should they wish.”
Dr. Kerri Titone, NSHS’s IB coordinator, has been working with Interim Superintendent Dr. Tom Dolan; Dr. Christopher Zublionis, assistant superintendent for instruction; Eric Contreras, the high school’s principal; and Dan Doherty, NSHS’s director of counseling, to determine the district’s future curriculum options.
“My husband and I moved here with our three young children in 2015 specifically because North Shore offered an IB diploma,” said Courtney Chambers, a parent of one child attending each NSHS, North Shore Middle School and Sea Cliff schools. “We moved here from Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, where our children attended an IB school.”
Chambers has a son who’s a freshman at North Shore who plans on taking AP courses next year, including AP Chemistry, so he can prepare for enrolling in IB classes his junior year.
At North Shore, students have the ability to choose between two paths of study within the IB curriculum — they may choose to follow the path of a full diploma candidate, or they may choose to be a certificate candidate. Its diploma program is built on a philosophy of interdisciplinary, college-level course work, the heart of which is the core classes Theory of Knowledge, Extended Essay and CAS (Creativity – Action – Service). In addition to the core subjects, students have a choice of 22 IB classes in six subject areas: language and literature, foreign language, sciences, mathematics, the arts, and individuals and societies, which focuses on human experience and behavior.
Students who choose not to pursue the IB diploma and fully immerse in the program can choose the certificate candidate path and will be exposed to individual courses of study with core aspects of the full IB program woven throughout the course. They may choose to take any singular course, or courses, for an individual certificate in each.
Keri Crocco’s daughter is currently enrolled in several IB courses at North Shore, and while she enjoys many of them, she gets the most out of her IB History course called ‘WATCH,’ or Wars Across Twentieth Century History, Crocco said.
“It lights her up like no other course has ever before. Even after a long day of school and extracurriculars, she comes home excited to talk about the ideas she and her classmates debated,” Crocco said. “She spends hours at night preparing for graded discussions, not just because she wants a good grade but because she wants to engage deeply in conversation with her peers.”
Many supporters of the IB curriculum say the unique discussion-based style of instruction is what draws students to pursuing these courses, and what ultimately helps students prepare for a better transition into their college courses in the coming years.
“In this current climate of inflamed rhetoric and knee-jerk responses, I can’t overemphasize how important it is for students to learn how to engage in respectful debate that is grounded in research and reflection,” Crocco said. “This alone makes the IB program worthwhile.”
For students who aren’t quite sold on going the IB route, North Shore currently offers 16 of the 28 AP courses, in subjects ranging from English literature to world history to statistics.
