The school, which serves grades 9 through 12, is a part of the
New York City Department of Education, and has an overall 59% graduation rate which includes special education students and ESL (English as a Second Language) students. The highest graduation rates in the past few years have been the class of 2010 with 70% and the class of 2011 with 89%. Long Island City High School has a significant population of first-generation immigrants as students. The school also has courses in music and culinary arts. The Music department consist of various levels of strings, orchestra, band, and choir. The orchestra, band and choir have all been recognized by NYSSMA, the New York State Music Association, as well as individual students in classes such as Opera and strings. The Celebrity Chef Bobby Flay has visited this school to shoot his show
Throwdown with Bobby Flay. Each year, culinary program graduates win thousands of dollars in scholarships to well-known culinary academies like
CIA. The PSAL organization recently refurbished the football field, which is used by teams all over the city for everything from Lacrosse to Soccer to Football The field has recently undergone a major renovation, in part due to the generosity of PSAL and the New York Jets. LICHS Gymnastics teams have won several citywide championships, the most recent being in the 2013 and 2014 school years. Alumni have attended
Ivy League schools, as well as
State University of New York,
City University of New York, and parochial post-secondary institutions. The former principal, William Bassell, has opened the new LIC building, replacing the original building on 41st Avenue and 28th Street (see Newcomer High School) which has 2 large gyms, a dance studio, a custom made culinary cooking kitchen for cooking classes, and an Olympic sized swimming pool. The current principal, Vivian Selenikas, was a network leader for the NYCDOE before returning to LICHS, where she had been an assistant principal years before. Long Island City High School has over a dozen
AP Classes, Opera and Orchestra, Dance and Theater, Visual Arts, and over eight Foreign Languages. It also has over 20 multicultural and interdisciplinary clubs, over 20 sports teams and a growing ARISTA (National Honor Society) chapter. The gymnastics program has won multiple citywide championships. Graduates have won football and baseball scholarships, as well as invitations to join major league baseball. ==Army Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corp.==