What sets Bard apart and renders it unique is its larger mission as a private institution in the public interest Bard has focused on the improvement public education; international education; and the arts. Bard College runs and maintains the leading network of Early College programs that reaches a full demographic range in terms of race and class. This network includes: Bard College at Simon's Rock in Great Barrington (the only residential early college) and the following public schools: Bard High School Manhattan, Bard High School Queens, Bard High School Newark, an early college center in New Orleans and one in the Children's Harlem Zone. These are all public schools and collaborations with public systems.. Bard has pioneered dual degree undergraduate and graduate programs both in the liberal arts and teacher training beyond the borders of the United States. It created and maintains the largest American-Palestinian academic collaboration in a dual degree program with Al Quds University. It designed and runs the most important dual degree program in Russia, Smolny, the Faculty of the Arts and Sciences with the University of St. Petersburg. It provides the American accreditation, academic oversight, and degrees for the American University in Central Asia in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Bard College operates the longest standing liberal arts program for European students at Bard College/Berlin, a university program accredited by the German EFTA01128572