MCHS houses approximately 500 students in 45-35 Van Dam Street, the former L building of LaGuardia College's campus.

It is recognized[1] for its success in turning around at-risk students and is one of 209 schools that the chancellor exempted from the citywide uniform curriculum mandated in 2003.

Students are only required to take and pass the NY State English Regents, another move away from traditional high-stakes testing.

Under the waiver, students are required to create a portfolio of final projects from their classes during their time at MCHS.

The Internationals Network for Public Schools[2][3] is an educational nonprofit supporting International high schools serving newly arrived immigrants who are English language learners (ELLs), in New York, California, Kentucky, Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC.

In 2001 the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation asked that they recreate this model[4] [5] across the country as a 501(c)3 nonprofit.

[6] Michelle Fine and a team of researchers from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York found that students at the three oldest International schools outperformed both English Language Learners and Native English Speakers (in New York City) in graduation rates and college going rates.