Former Principal Eric Nadelstern founded The International High School at LaGuardia Community College in 1985 as a joint venture by the New York City Board of Education and the Board of Higher Education of the City of New York. The school has been designated as an Academic Excellence Project and has twice been cited as a Center of Excellence for the teaching of English communication arts. Nadelstern left the school to join the NY Department of Education.

After holding a variety of roles, Nadelstern is the department?s chief schools officer and reports directly to the Chancellor. The school's success has been the model of 11 additional International high schools in New York and California. All twelve high schools belong to the Internationals Network for Public Schools, an educational non-profit that supports these schools and an expansion of the model to serve English language learners throughout the United States.

IHS curriculum requirements meet or exceed all New York State Education Department standards for a high school diploma. All classes are heterogeneous (mixed) by language, achievement, grade level, and age. Classes are structured around the development of thematic projects in cooperative learning groups.

Students work in depth, both collaboratively and independently. Students fulfill graduation requirements by passing year-long interdisciplinary programs incorporating the Humanities, Math/Science/Technology, and Applied Learning. There are six interdisciplinary programs based on such themes as: Interdisciplinary programs give students a variety of opportunities to apply what they learn in the classroom to real life situations, such as working with architects to build bridges or environmentalists to clean up polluted bodies of ware.

Two special programs include internship and community service.

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