Frequently Asked Questions
BASIC QUESTIONS
Mission Statement
The Minority Enterprise Career Schools’ (MECS) Mission is to provide high-quality career and technical education (CTE), aligned with New York State Education Department’s Business and Marketing, Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurial Studies, and Career Development and Occupational Studies (CDOS) Commencement Level Learning Standard 3b: Career Clusters—Business/Information Systems.
Maximizing Student Potential
High school is a pivotal time for students, marking the transition from adolescence to adulthood and shaping their future career paths. As educators and administrators, one of your primary goals is to guide students towards a fulfilling professional life. But how can you help them identify their strengths, weaknesses, and interests effectively? The MAPP (Motivational Appraisal of Personal Potential) Career Assessment offers a scientifically-backed solution.
What is the MAPP Career Assessment?
Developed based on psychological theory and extensive research, the MAPP Career Assessment evaluates a student’s motivations, preferences, and natural inclinations within a professional setting. Unlike generic career quizzes, MAPP offers comprehensive, actionable insights that provide a strong foundation for career planning.
Why MAPP is Ideal for High School Students?
Early Identification of Strengths and Weaknesses: The sooner students become aware of their strengths and weaknesses, the better they can plan their academic path. MAPP offers a detailed overview, allowing students to align their course selections with their natural talents and career aspirations. The MAPP Assessment gives a custom-tailored road map for each student, moving beyond the one-size-fits-all approach of traditional career guidance programs. Students receive individualized recommendations for career paths best suited to their unique profiles. Identifying areas for growth early on helps students focus on skill development, enabling them to make informed choices about electives, internships, and extracurricular activities.
Why Should I Attend Minority Enterprise Career Schools?
To keep pace with the rapidly changing job market, we’ve updated our curriculum to align with the needs of today’s learners. Our new Critical Career Skills (CCS) program builds on the previous Communication Skills for Business (CSB) offering. It expands our core communication training while boosting overall career readiness and employability. We’ve also introduced a Generative AI Foundations exam to reflect emerging workplace technologies.
Career Assessment
The MAPP (Motivational Appraisal of Personal Potential) Career Assessment is a comprehensive psychological test crafted to provide profound insights into your personality, preferences, and capabilities, especially within a professional setting. Beyond career insights, the MAPP assessment delves into understanding your unique learning style, which proves invaluable not only for career planning but also for personal development and making informed education & college decisions. This dual-focus ensures you are best positioned to succeed in both professional endeavors and academic pursuits.
Motivational Drivers
This section provides a window into what fundamentally motivates you. Understanding whether you are driven by problem-solving, leading, or perhaps serving others can guide you toward roles that align with these innate drives.
Career Themes
The assessment will identify key themes that are relevant to your work life, such as whether you are more suited to analytical roles, creative fields, or people-centered professions. Knowing these themes can help you hone-in on potential career paths.
Learning Styles
The MAPP Assessment also delves into your preferred learning styles—whether you are a visual, auditory, kinesthetic, or reading/writing learner. Understanding how you best absorb information can not only aid in skill development but also help you adapt to various work environments and tasks more effectively.
Occupational Recommendations
Based on your drives, themes, and learning styles, the MAPP assessment usually offers a range of occupational suggestions that you might find fulfilling. These are customized to your unique profile and often include a rationale for why each profession was selected.
Working Preferences
The assessment outlines your ideal work environments, relationships, and tasks. Whether you thrive in team settings or as an individual contributor, prefer structured or flexible work environments, this section helps you better understand where you will be most effective and satisfied.
Is MECS Accredited by the New York State Education Department?
MECS is a State-accredited nonpublic secondary school, grades nine through twelve, Chartered by the Board of Regents of The University of the State of New York, for and on behalf of the Education Department.
What Degrees Does MECS Offer?
MECS administers State exams and issues valid NYS diplomas (Regents or Local) to students who have met all of the criteria for graduation.
What Are the Criteria for Graduation?
A NYSED-Approved Pathway Assessments in Career Development and Occupational Studies. Students may earn the Career Development and Occupational Studies (CDOS) Commencement Credential by completing all requirements set forth in Section 100.6(b)(1-3) of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education or by passing a NYSED-approved nationally-recognized work readiness assessment.
What Electives or Certifications Do You Offer?
MECS offers the following Career Certifications:
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Adobe Certified Professional (ACP)
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Apple App Development with Swift Certification (APP)
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Autodesk Certified User Certification (ACU)
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Cisco Certified Support Technician (CCST)
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Critical Career Skills (CCS)
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Entrepreneurship and Small Business Certification (ESB)
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IC3 Digital Literacy Certification (IC3)
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Intuit Master Certification in Entrepreneurship Certification (ESB2)
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Pearson IT Specialist Certification (ITS)
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Meta Certified Digital Marketing Associate Certification
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Microsoft Certified Fundamentals (MCF)
Are There Any Tuition or Fees?
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MECS School Basic Tuition for 2025-26 — Paid by ESSA Title I, Part A (LEA) Funds.
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$499 for each MECS—CATC Certification enrolled Student ONLY.
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A $200 non-refundable fee is required to cover Microsoft Surface Pro Protection Plan or Apple iPad Pro AppleCare Protection Plan for Tablets we issue to ALL students.
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A one-time $50 non-refundable fee for the MAPP Assessment Test.
What about Scholarships?
Parents and families of economically disadvantaged¹ students should apply for an Education Opportunity Scholarship (ESSA Title I, Part A (LEA) Funds) for your child to attend MECS Academy. Parents and families have the right to send their children to the public, private, charter, magnet, religious, or home school of their choice and expand vocational and technical education.
Each and every student has the freedom to find his or her education fit and families can use taxpayer funds to choose schools that match their values and educational goals.
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The Educational Choice for Children Act (ECCA) is a Federal Scholarship Tax Credit and represents the most ambitious school choice legislation in Congress, aimed at expanding educational opportunities in all 50 states.
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The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (Sec. 1202), known as 529 plans, will provide a tax-exempt $10,000 Education Freedom Scholarship for an economically disadvantaged designated student.
Where Are MECS Academy Schools Students Located?
MECS Academy schools students are located in ⎯ NYC GEOG DISTRICTS ⎯ BROOKLYN (Districts #16, #17, #18, #19, #21, and #23).
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1. Economically Disadvantaged students are defined as students who participates in, or whose family participates in, economic assistance programs, such as the Free or Reduced-Price Lunch Programs; Social Security Insurance (SSI); Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP); Foster Care; Refugee Assistance (cash or medical assistance); Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC); Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP); Safety Net Assistance (SNA); Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA); or Family Assistance: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). If one student in a family is identified as low income, all students from that household (economic unit) may be identified as low income.
ACADEMICS & CURRICULUM
Curriculum
MECS Curriculum is aligned with New York State Education Department’s Career Development and Occupational Studies (CDOS) Commencement Level Learning Standards.
Commencement Core Curriculum Standard 1: Career Development
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Students will be knowledgeable about the world of work, explore career options, and relate personal skills, aptitudes, and abilities to future career decisions.
Commencement Standard 2: Integrated Learning
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Students will demonstrate how academic knowledge and skills are applied in the workplace and other settings.
Commencement Standard 3a: Universal Foundation Skills
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Students will demonstrate mastery of the foundation skills and competencies essential for success in the workplace.
Commencement Standard 3b: Career Clusters—Business/Information Systems
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Students who choose a career cluster will acquire the career-specific technical knowledge/skills necessary to progress toward gainful employment, career advancement, and success in postsecondary programs.
What Is Your Instructional Model?
The Minority Enterprise Career Schools (MECS) Academy provides a high-quality career and technical education (CTE) – Business and Marketing and Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurial Studies for all students through utilizing an authentic hands-on approach to learning.
Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurial education is a critical response to the challenge facing our country today—making education meaningful and more inclusive. Entrepreneurship education is an essential tool for meeting the needs of the underserved and vulnerable students thus serving as a means of addressing the challenges of poverty, inequality, and economic growth.
More importantly, entrepreneurship education is needed because it does the following: (1) provides opportunities to personally develop students, (2) grows their ability to critically think about and solve problems, (3) lessens the unemployment rate, (4) increases the supply of future entrepreneurs, (5) increases the establishment of new companies, and 6) lessens the number of business failures.
MECS entrepreneurs research and evaluate prospects, galvanize financial resources, create an action plan, actively manage the enterprise, and create a system to measure success as well as improve on identified inefficiencies. Unlike “Conventional” entrepreneurs who engage in activities similar to those already in the industry, or they enter well-established markets, or they use well-known techniques of production and distribution. MECS’ “Innovate” entrepreneurs, in contrast, adopt new techniques, overcome gaps in markets, and overcome market imperfections and other obstacles, (“Entrepreneurship and Development,” Leibenstein, Harvey (May 1968), pp. 72-83).
In addition, MECS utilizes the New York State Education Department’s Career Development Occupational Studies (CDOS) Standard 2 Integrated Learning approach to foster rich learning opportunities for students to link or connect their learning to other content areas, time periods as well as other learning experiences in a comprehensive manner; thereby enabling students to develop meaningful understanding of the complex associations and influences within a topic. For example, in math (MST), students practice applying mathematical ways of thinking to real-world issues and challenges to contextualize learning and to maximize the transfer of skills.
Students in English Language Arts (ELA) as well as other content areas build understanding and skills across the curriculum and co-curriculum, from making simple connections among ideas and experiences to synthesizing and transferring learning to new, complex situations within the classroom and community life.
What Extracurriculars Do You Offer?
Artistic expressions — ART. Dance. Performances (Live & Recorded). Digital Art. Spoken Word. Hip Hop. Double Dutch. Music / Band. Sports. Physical Fitness.
How Do You Monitor Student Progress?
By the beginning of grade 9, students will complete, in conjunction with their counselor, the New York State Career Plan² that was approved under the New York State Board of Regents June 2016 CDOS Graduation Pathway³. This tool will reflect a student’s knowledge and skill attainment that students have built from elementary school to high school. This tool is aligned with the CTE standards and will be utilized to add relevance and meaning to learning experiences across grades and content areas. Utilizing the New York State Department of Labor CareerZone⁴ students in grade 9 will begin to create individual Career Plans with the “My Portfolio” tool.
These Career Plans will be used as an employability profile for all students and will be required for students upon entering MECS academy. It will be referenced tri-annually to assess students’ progress toward their goals and update their Career Plans.
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4. https://careerzone.labor.ny.gov/jz/views/careerzone/index.jsf, Accessed June 16, 2025
SCHOOL POLICIES & CULTURE
School Parent and Family Engagement Policy
In support of strengthening student academic achievement, each school that receives Title I, Part A funds must develop jointly with, agree on with, and distribute to, families of participating children a written parent and family engagement policy that contains information required by ESSA 114-95 Section 1116 (b) & (c) of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).
Parental Involvement
Hold informational sessions or workshops for parents, explaining the benefits of the MAPP assessment. A holistic approach to career planning often requires family support.
Do You Have a PTO or Parent Advisory Committee?
Yes
What Is Your Attendance Policy?
MECS Academy adopts the "Commissioner's Regulation - Section 104.1 - The full attendance regulation."
All public and nonpublic schools are required to have a Board of Education approved Attendance Policy that outlines all expectation associated with student attendance from kindergarten registration to graduation. A comprehensive attendance policy should be integrated with all other policies that effect a student's right to instruction e.g., discipline, code of conduct, suspension, safety, tutoring, alternative instruction, school assignments, residency, field trips, extra-curricular participation etc.
What Is Your School’s Approach to Behavior Supports and Discipline?
MECS Academy adopts "The Safe Schools Against Violence in Education Act (SAVE)."
The New York State Education Department is committed to promoting safe learning environments where students and teachers work collaboratively in pursuit of academic excellence and social and emotional growth.
What Are Your School Days? Hours?
Mondays – Fridays 8AM to 10PM
Saturdays 9AM to 5PM
What Technology Do Students Use in Class?
Microsoft Surface Pro Tablets or Apple iPad Pro Tablets are issued to ALL students for Certification courses and homework.
Are They Able to Bring Technology Home?
Yes.