Stephen B. Plank

Associate Professor

Office: Mergenthaler 560
Office Hours: Friday, 3:00 - 5:00
Phone: 410.516.7633
Email: splank@jhu.edu
Curriculum Vitae (PDF)

  • I am an associate professor in the Department of Sociology.  I received my PhD in sociology from the University of Chicago in 1995. My research and teaching interests include sociology of education, statistical and research methods, and urban school improvement.

    My published education research includes Finding One’s Place: Teaching Styles and Peer Relations in Diverse Classrooms (Teachers College Press, 2000), and articles in the American Educational Research Journal, Teachers College Record, Journal of Vocational Education Research, Sociology of Education, and American Journal of Education.  Much of my past and current research focuses on solutions to the problem of high school dropout (including associations with career and technical education), predictors of successful transitions to college, and school climate.

    I am co-director of the Baltimore Education Research Consortium and am also affiliated with the Johns Hopkins Center for Social Organization of Schools.

  • 230.123 Trust and Altruism: Existence and Forms in Theory and Practice
    230.304     Social Organization and Social Control in Schools
    230.322 Quantitative Research Practicum
    230.604 Regression Analysis

  • Plank, S., C. Bradshaw , & H. Young. (2009). An application of “broken windows” and related theories to the study of disorder, fear, and collective efficacy in schools. American Journal of Education 115(2):227-248.

    Plank, S., S. DeLuca, & A. Estacion. (2008). High school dropout and the role of career and technical education: A survival analysis of surviving high school. Sociology of Education 81(4):345-370.

    Plank, S. (2007). Pedagogical change in schools as diffusion of innovation: Some sociological guidelines for research. Pp. 178-188 in R. Spalter-Rother and N. Fortenberry (eds.), What sociologists know about the acceptance and diffusion of innovation: The case of engineering education. Washington, DC: American Sociological Association and the Center for the Advancement of Scholarship on Engineering Education.

    Plank, S., & W. Jordan. (2001). Effects of information, guidance, and actions on postsecondary destinations: A study of talent loss. American Educational Research Journal 38(4):947-979.

    Plank, S. (2000). Finding One's Place: Teaching Styles and Peer Relations in Diverse Classrooms. New York: Teachers College Press.