Instruction at the Macomb Academy of Arts and Sciences focuses on accelerated content skills.  The capacity to think creatively, make decisions, solve problems, see possibilities, learn how to learn and to reason are developed as students mature.

Personal qualities, or "Habits of Mind", are encouraged and developed as well.  They include responsibility, thinking flexibly, persisting, striving for accuracy, integrity and honesty and remaining open to continuous learning, among others.

Basic skills, thinking skills and personal qualities have been designated as desirable characteristics in the workplace by the Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills:  A SCANS Report for American 2000, U.S. Department of Labor.