Kenneth Frank

Kenneth Frank
  • MSU Foundation Professor of Sociometrics
  • Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology, and Special Education
  • Ph.D. University of Chicago, 1993

CURRICULUM VITAE

Kenneth Frank

BIOGRAPHY

Kenneth Frank received his Ph.D. in measurement, evaluation and statistical analysis from the School of Education at the University of Chicago in 1993.  He is MSU Foundation professor of Sociometrics, professor in Counseling, Educational Psychology and Special Education; and adjunct (by courtesy) in Fisheries and Wildlife and Sociology at Michigan State University.  His substantive interests include the study of schools as organizations, social structures of students and teachers and school decision-making, and social capital.  His substantive areas are linked to several methodological interests: social network analysis, sensitivity analysis and causal inference (http://konfound-it.com), and multi-level models. His publications include quantitative methods for representing relations among actors in a social network, robustness indices for sensitivity analysis for causal inferences, and the effects of social capital in schools, natural resource management, and other social contexts.  

CURRENT RESEARCH

Dr. Frank’s current projects include how beginning teachers’ networks affect their response to the Common Core; how schools respond to increases in core curricular requirements; school governance; teachers’ use of social media https://www.teachersinsocialmedia.com/); implementation of the Carbon-Time science curriculum (http://carbontime.bscs.org/); epistemic network analysis (http://www.epistemicnetwork.org/); social network intervention in natural resources and construction management; complex decision-making in health care; and the diffusion of knowledge about climate change.

PUBLICATIONS

Frank, K.A., Lo, Y., Booth, G.G., Kallunki, J.P.  (2019). The Market Dynamics of Socially Embedded Trading.  Rationality and Society. Vol 3(2): 153-181.

Frank K.A., Lo Y., Torphy K., Kim J. (2018) Social Networks and Educational Opportunity. pp 297-316 in Schneider B. (eds) Handbook of the Sociology of Education in the 21st Century. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, Cham.

*Frank, K.A. and *Xu, Ran. (forthcoming). Causal Inference for Social Network Analysis.  James Moody and Ryan Light editors.  Oxford Handbook of Social Network Analysis.  Oxford, UK.

* Co equal first authors.

 

Minor, E., Saw, G., Frank, K.A., Schneider, B., and Torphy, K (accepted). “External Contextual Factors and Teacher Turnover: The Case of Michigan High Schools.” Teachers’ College Record.

Kim, Chong Min, Frank, K.A., and James P. Spillane. (2018). "Relationships among Teachers' Formal and Informal Positions and Their Incoming Student Composition." Teachers College Record 120(3).

                Kim, J., Youngs, P. and Frank, K., 2017. Burnout contagion: Is it due to early career teachers' social networks or organizational exposure?. Teaching and Teacher Education, 66, pp.250-260.

                Jacob, B., Dynarski, S., Frank, K. and Schneider, B., 2017. Are Expectations Alone Enough? Estimating the Effect of a Mandatory College-Prep Curriculum in Michigan. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 39(2), pp.333-360.

                Frank, K.A. and Xu, R., 2017. KONFOUND: Stata module to quantify robustness of causal inferences. Statistical Software Components.

Wilhelm, A.G., Chen, I.C., Smith, T.M. and Frank, K.A., 2016. Selecting Expertise in Context Middle School Mathematics Teachers’ Selection of New Sources of Instructional Advice. American Educational Research Journal, 53(3), pp.456-491.

Dietz, T., Frank, K. A., Whitley, C. T., Kelly, J., & Kelly, R. (2015). Political influences on greenhouse gas emissions from US states. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(27), 8254-8259.   Media Hits.Responses re: causal inference.Conceptualizing and Measuring Environmentalism

Frank, K.A., Penuel, W.R. and Krause, A., 2015. What Is A “Good” Social Network For Policy Implementation? The Flow Of Know‐How For Organizational Change. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 34(2), pp.378-402.

ASSOCIATED PROGRAMS

  • Counseling
  • Educational Psychology and Special Education
  • Fisheries and Wildlife

LINKS

https://www.msu.edu/user/k/e/kenfrank/web/index.htm