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Pensacola High School is the only school in the county to have an [[Wikipedia:International Baccalaureate|International Baccalaureate]] program as well as a [[Wikipedia:Health Occupation Students of America|Health Occupation Students of America]] honors program. The International Baccalaureate program was introduced in [[1986]] as a last-ditch effort to keep the school open; many students had performed poorly, and there were high dropout rates. The school district had given the administration an ultimatum: improve the numbers or be shut down. With the introduction of the IB program, the higher test scores helped bring up the average and kept Pensacola High open.
The IB program at Pensacola High was developed by Donna Dunson. Richard Kuhn served as the coordinator from [[1994]] until [[2002]]. Under his guidance the program achieved great success, all the more impressive when considering the poor funding provided to the county. Upon his resignation, former teacher and District Social Studies Specialist Colleen Boyett served as coordinator. Under her leadership AP and IB course offerings were expanded, resulting in Pensacola High being named as one of the top ten high school programs in America by Newsweek magazine in May of 2005. Upon her departure to return to graduate school, she was replaced by Dr. Joy McMichael. In July 2007, however, Dr. McMichael became Assistant Principal of Curriculum, and Deanna Gordon (previously the IB World Literature teacher) became the new IB coordinator. Dr.McMicheal later left the school to become principal at Brown Barge Middle.
==National Recognition and Prominence==
