Bard High School Early College

Bard has a 40-year history in early college education, dating back to 1979 when Bard assumed leadership of Simon’s Rock, the nation’s first private, residential early college. This experience led Bard College President Leon Botstein to make the case for early college education in his 1997 book Jefferson’s Children: Education and the Promise of American Culture. The 1999 Columbine High School massacre reignited a debate about how to better serve the American teenager through high school reform. Bard stepped into this conversation with a groundbreaking idea, made possible by the support of the New York City Department of Education under the leadership of Chancellor Harold Levy.