Thursday, October 1, 2026
North Shore High School has been considering a change in its course and degree offerings. In December, district administrators 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.
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. As it stands, North Shore offers students a choice of degree paths among AP, IB, Dual-Enrollment, Honors and Regents.
“I have one child who may be interested in either IB or AP but it’s hard especially since they are not setting kids up to be able to handle the amount of work that comes with this program,” Renee Monte, of Glen Head, wrote on a Facebook post. “I also think it’s not exactly clear to parents and students how this helps with college or grades; most I’ve spoken to say it’s not worth it. I think they just need to be more clear on the process and benefits as well as prepare students for the intensity of the program.”
One possibility was for NSHS to become an “AP-only” school, which would involve taking on the AP Capstone diploma program, increasing course offerings at all grade levels, enhancing training and potentially requiring students to pay for the advanced exams. North Shore currently offers 16 of the 28 AP courses, in subjects ranging from English literature to world history to statistics.
According to the College Board, a non-profit organization that helps students prepare for college, enrollment in AP courses in New York schools declined by over 4.4 percent from 2020 to 2021, and the number of students scoring 3 or higher on the exams (out of a possible 5) dropped by about 12 percent.
“I feel AP is better suited for our school size in providing varied opportunities for students to achieve academic success and distinction on their academic resume,” Heather Fichtl, of Sea Cliff, a parent of a Sea Cliff fifth-grader and a North Shore Middle School student, said. “We need to assess how we can best serve all students at all levels and with varied interests versus just how the district can best serve my own children.”
Another option the district considered was making the move to “IB-only” course offerings, removing the option for the AP path. The high school is currently registered as an IB World School, offering students who complete “core” IB classes an International Baccalaureate degree. 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.
The Diploma Program is designed to hone students’ skills as learners, foster interdisciplinary learning and prepare them for global citizenship in the 21st century, according to the district’s website. Students spend their junior and senior years immersed in studies and experiences that prepare them for college and beyond.
Ultimately, school officials made the recommendation for NSHS to continue offering both AP and IB degree paths.
“As we went through all of the data — the qualitative, the quantitative, the student surveys, the teacher surveys and a consultation with the directors [of AP and IB],” Titone, the school’s IB coordinator, said, “Tom, Chris, Dan, Eric and I landed on what we would like to be the path forward, and that is a recommendation to maintain [both] AP and IB at North Shore High School.”
Titone said that the school had conducted student focus groups to weigh future curriculum options, and found that, in general, students were very satisfied with their experiences at the high school, and clearly wanted to see it maintain both AP courses and the IB program.
The administrators, too, said they wanted to preserve student choice and opportunity, while investigating the possibility of dual-enrollment courses in both AP and IB classes. “I think it just offers kids the opportunity to choose,” Dolan said. “We do well by kids when we give them choices.”
Some 74 percent of NSHS’s current senior class will have taken at least one AP or IB course before they graduate this spring.
