Dr. Garton is a visiting assistant professor of quantitative methods in the Department of Education Leadership, Management, and Policy. He teaches courses in the statistics series across the K-12, higher education, and police studies programs. Prior to Seton Hall, he worked in assessment and accreditation at the University of South Carolina.

Dr. Garton's research focuses on higher education and economic development, as well as comparative and international higher education. Recent work analyzes colleges and universities as anchor institutions and estimates the effects of university-led urban development initiatives on rates of gentrification. Other projects Dr. Garton has worked on include higher education transformation in South Africa, ecological student development models of international students in the United States, and macro-analyses of postsecondary degree saturation and inequality. Dr. Garton's work has appeared in journals such as the Journal of College Student Development, Metropolitan Universities, the Journal of Comparative and International Higher Education, and Globalisation, Societies and Education.