Dr. Erica Harbatkin is an Assistant Professor of Educational Policy and Evaluation. She uses econometric research methods to examine the implementation and impact of policies related to school accountability, school improvement, and teacher labor markets. In particular, she applies an economics of education lens to isolate causal effects and then to unpack the mechanisms underlying those effects. She is a faculty affiliate at the Education Policy Innovation Collaborative (EPIC) at Michigan State University. She is on the editorial boards of Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis (EEPA), Educational Researcher (ER), and Journal of Research in Educational Effectiveness (JREE). Dr. Harbatkin earned her Ph.D. in educational policy with a graduate minor in quantitative methods from Vanderbilt University, a master’s of public policy (MPP) from George Washington University, and a bachelor’s degree in print and multimedia journalism from Emerson College. Prior to her work in educational policy research, Dr. Harbatkin was a reporter at daily newspapers throughout the country.
Dr. Harbatkin’s website: www.harbatkin.com
Current CV: www.harbatkin.com/cv.html
Selected Recent Publications
* Denotes student coauthor
Harbatkin, E., Nguyen, T., Strunk, K.O., Burns, J.A., & Moran, A.J.* (2025). Should I Stay or Should I Go (Later)? Teacher intentions and turnover in low-performing schools. Education Finance and Policy, 1–61. https://doi.org/10.1162/edfp_a_00447.
Harbatkin, E., Burns, J.A., & Cullum, S.* (2025). The Role of School Climate in School Turnaround. Teachers College Record, 126(11-12), 126–170. https://doi.org/10.1177/01614681251318876.
Bleiberg, J., Brunner, E., Harbatkin, E., Kraft, M. & Springer, M. (2024). Taking Teacher Evaluation to Scale: The Effect of State Reforms on Achievement and Attainment. Journal of Political Economy Microeconomics. https://doi.org/10.1086/732837.
Harbatkin, E., Pham, L., Redding, C., & Moran, A.J.* (2024). What are the Side Effects of School Turnaround? A Systematic Review. Review of Research in Education, 48(1), 58-88. https://doi.org/10.3102/0091732X241248151.
Burrell, N.* & Harbatkin, E. (2024). Beyond the School Building: Examining the Association between Out-of-School Factors and Multidimensional School Grades. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 32. https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.32.8497.
Harbatkin, E., Strunk, K.O., & McIlwain, A.* (2023) School Turnaround in a Pandemic: An Examination of the Outsized Implications of COVID-19 for Low-Performing Schools, Districts, and Their Communities. Economics of Education Review. 27, 102484. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2023.102484.
Burns, J.A., Harbatkin, E., Strunk, K.O., Torres, C., McIlwain, A.*, Waldron, S.F.* (2023). The Efficacy and Implementation of Michigan’s Partnership Model of School and District Turnaround: Mixed-Methods Evidence from the First Two Years of Reform Implementation. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 45(4), 622–654. https://doi.org/10.3102/01623737221141415.
Selected Public Writing
Harbatkin, E. & Nguyen, T.D. (2023, October 19). The relationship between teacher intentions, turnover behavior, and school conditions. Brookings Brown Center Chalkboard. Available at https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-relationship-between-teacher-intentions-turnover-behavior-and-school-conditions/.
Harbatkin, E. & Henry, G.T. (2019, October 21). The cascading effects of principal turnover on students and schools. Brookings Brown Center Chalkboard. Available at https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2019/10/21/the-cascading-effects-of-principal-turnover-on-students-and-schools/.
Selected Grant Funding
Co-Principal Investigator, “Career Development Opportunities in a Midsize Florida School District.” U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences.
Principal Investigator, “Teacher Certification in Career and Technical Education: An Investigation of CTE Teacher Mobility and Student Outcomes in Florida.” American Educational Research Association and National Science Foundation Research Grant.
Co-Principal Investigator, “Teacher Clinical Experiences and the Teacher Pipeline.” Michigan Department of Education.
Co-Principal Investigator, “Evaluation of Michigan’s Partnership Model of School and District Turnaround.” Michigan Department of Education.
Classes Taught
Economics of Education; Introduction to Large Datasets; Teacher Policy and Reform; Policy Studies in Education