For Immediate Release: July 23, 2014
Contact: Renée Rybak Lang, 703.740.4841, reneerl@nasbe.org
Arlington, Va. — Open Society Institute-Baltimore, and its director, Diana Morris, are being honored this year by NASBE’s Board of Directors with the organization’s 2014 Friend of Education Award. The national award is given annually to an individual or organization whose contributions to education are significant and enduring.
Established in 1998, Open Society Institute-Baltimore has become one of Baltimore’s most visible and effective civil society groups. OSI-Baltimore’s Education and Youth Development program provides critical assistance and support to reforming school discipline policies and regulations in Maryland.
At OSI-Baltimore’s helm is Diana Morris who has worked collaboratively with Maryland’s State Board of Education and Department of Education for a number of years to dramatically improve school discipline practices across the state. Morris, along with Jane Sundius, director of the education and youth development program, and Katherine Rabb, program officer, helped facilitate the state board’s efforts to amend Maryland’s school discipline regulations and guidelines for a state code of discipline to better reflect rehabilitative approaches to school discipline, practices that help keep students in school and on a path to graduation and beyond.
“Diana and OSI-Baltimore understand the power of collaboration to achieve an end goal,” says NASBE Executive Director Kristen Amundson. “OSI-Baltimore has worked effectively with the Maryland State Board to improve school discipline policies statewide, and its efforts are paying off locally as well. In 2004, Baltimore’s school suspension rates were at a record high of 26,300. After OSI-Baltimore started working with the city’s schools on revising discipline codes, suspensions fell to 8,600 over six years. That’s a tremendous achievement.”
Arguably, OSI-Baltimore’s work on school discipline has shaped national school discipline policy as well. Both U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan have praised the work of Baltimore City Schools and the Maryland State Board of Education for their efforts on reforming school discipline practices and have recently unveiled first-ever national guidelines on school discipline during a visit to Baltimore.
“We are honored to be recognized by NASBE as a Friend of Education,” says OSI-Baltimore Director Diana Morris. “As we work together with schools, parents, and advocates to assure that every child attends school every day, we know that state and local boards of education are critical partners. Keeping children connected to school, from their earliest years all the way through graduation, truly is a community effort. And we’re grateful to have NASBE — as friends of ours — working alongside our grantees and us.”
Diana Morris will accept the NASBE Friend of Education award on behalf of Open Society Institute-Baltimore on October 17, at NASBE’s national conference in Denver, Colorado.
The National Association of State Boards of Education represents America’s state and territorial boards of education. NASBE exists to strengthen State Boards as the preeminent educational policymaking bodies for citizens and students. For more, visit www.nasbe.org.