Open Society Institute – Baltimore
Open Society Institute (OSI) – Baltimore : Audacious Thinking For Lasting Change
The Maryland State Department of Education recently released its data on suspensions, expulsions, and health-related exclusions for the 2009-2010 school year. As I was preparing an OSI-Baltimore factsheet using the numbers, an alarming data point arose: 75 pre-K students in Maryland received an out-of-school suspension or were expelled during the school year. The punished incidents […]
The Internet has radically changed the way we get our news, introducing new problems for communities like Baltimore: traditional media have reduced their local news coverage, new media startups are struggling to fill in the gaps, and social networks are flooding us with too much unreliable information. To address these problems, NewsTrust, our nonprofit social […]
We see a marked trend in the world of education—especially in urban education. In a well-intentioned attempt to leave no child behind and to raise the levels of poor-performing schools in cities across America, we have misguidedly narrowed our responsibility in educating young people, choosing to define successful schools primarily by what can be easily […]
If you have big goals for significant and lasting change in Baltimore, you need to be audacious. But in addition, you have to partner with patience and persistence—and with the many others in our city who share the vision of opportunity for all. So our goals for 2011 are the same as they have been […]
There has been a lot of talk lately about the failure of 20-somethings to launch as demonstrated by a recent article in the New York Times magazine. Buoyed by mounting evidence of delayed marriage and childbearing, more years of education, and higher reliance on parents for economic support and shelter, some social scientists have theorized […]
Sociologists, anthropologists and scores of human development experts have raised the question of nature verses nurture. Does the environment or the DNA determine the success or failure of a person? As it stands, growing up in Baltimore poses a myriad of challenges to speak to the variability of either position. Could a social experiment offer […]
“[A] combination of realism and open-mindedness among residents—an underlying belief in the city’s potential, despite its frustrating challenges.” This is one of the responses I received when I asked Baltimoreans what they believed were the city’s strengths. Over the past two months, I have had the amazing opportunity to experience some of this realism and […]
Complaining about public transportation is almost a national pastime. While not quite cocktail party chatter, transit often comes up in conversations “around the water cooler” and invariably the discussion descends into who has had the worst experience. And also invariably the conversations end with at least one “why don’t they just…” Unfortunately, water cooler conversations […]
Elementary School children gather around a table in their Food Education class. The teacher brings out a pomegranate, which she cuts in half and opens to the waiting eyes of the children, one of whom lets out a delighted “ooooooh. It looks like jewels!!” Kwan, age 10, picks up a shovel as community members gather […]
“Those who say it can’t be done are usually interrupted by others doing it.” -James Baldwin Imagine a Baltimore city where we care for our children as powerfully as we care about the winner of the big game or the latest gossip about neighbors or television personalities. Imagine a Baltimore city where we collectively work […]
OSI-Baltimore has permanently closed. It has been our honor and privilege to partner with and serve the Baltimore community for the past 25 years.
This website is available for historical purposes. It is no longer being updated.