About me

I am an Associate Professor in the Research and Evaluation Methodology (REM) Program at the University of Florida.  Previously, I was an Assistant Professor of Quantitative Methods at the University of Alabama. 

My research interests include the development and application of experimental and quasi-experimental methods (e.g., Multilevel RCT, IV, RDD, DID, etc.) to issues in education and policy studies. Currently, my methodological work focuses on statistical power analysis for longitudinal experimental designs and multilevel randomized cost-effectiveness trials. My substantive work encompasses research on class size effects, teacher effects, school effectiveness and school improvement, the effectiveness of online learning and teaching, and the effects of interim assessment on student achievement. 

My research has been supported by over $7 million in funding as principal investigator, co-principal investigator, or investigator, with more than $2.6 million in support of methodology research. Much of that support has come from grants from NSF and IES. I received an NSF Faculty Early Career award in 2024.

I received my Ph.D. with a dual major in Measurement and Quantitative Methods and Educational Policy (specialization in Economics of Education​) at Michigan State University.  

You can find my UF profile here https://education.ufl.edu/faculty/li-wei/.  I also serve as an affiliate faculty member of the Education Policy Research Center at UF (https://education.ufl.edu/eprc/ ) and a committee member of the Chinese Education Finance and Policy (CEFP) Association (https://cefp2020.wixsite.com/website/about). 

Current Recruiting Opportunities (Last updated: October 22, 2025): I am currently accepting doctoral students and Postdocs in the REM program. For more information, please see Students&Postdocs. Please feel free to reach out to me at wei.li@coe.ufl.edu if you have any questions. 

What is new?

11/15/2025 - I’m currently chairing the search committee for a new Assistant/Associate Professor in AI-Based Quantitative Research Method in Education in the Research and Evaluation Methodology (REM) program at the University of Florida. Position details and application link:https://explore.jobs.ufl.edu/en-us/job/537861/assistantassociate-professor-position-in-aibased-quantitative-research-method-in-education 

11/13/2025 - I am pleased to share that I will continue to serve on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness (JREE) for the next three years. 

7/1/2025 - I am honored to share that I have been invited to join the Editorial Board of Psychology in the Schools (Wiley). It is a leading peer-reviewed journal that publishes empirical studies, reviews, and applied research on the psychological and educational processes of children, adolescents, and school staff. Beginning July 2025, I will serve a two-year term reviewing manuscripts, contributing to the journal’s international scholarship in school psychology, and supporting the editorial team’s mission to advance high-quality research and practice worldwide. 

5/14/2025 - I am excited to share that my doctoral student, Xueyan Gao, has been selected for the Pasco County Schools Graduate Externship Program. As part of this externship, Xueyan will investigate the impact of the Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) program on student achievement. I am honored to serve as his faculty mentor for this project and look forward to supporting his research journey in collaboration with Pasco County Schools.

4/24/2025 – I'm pleased to announce that my project titled "Enhancing Longitudinal Program Evaluations: Estimating Design Parameters and Illustrating Advanced Quasi-Experimental Methods Using UF Lastinger Center Data" has been awarded funding from the 2025-26 COE-Lastinger Research Catalyst Awards. I'm deeply grateful to the UF Lastinger Center and my colleagues there for their support and partnership.

4/21/2025 – I'm pleased to share that my proposal titled "Sample Size and Power Analysis Methods for Propensity Score–Based Quasi-Experimental Studies with Multilevel and Longitudinal Designs" has been selected for funding by the HDOSE 2025 Strategic Reinvestment Program. I look forward to collaborating with my UF colleague, Dr. Walter Leite, as well as my students and postdocs, on developing new methods and tools for sample size planning in propensity score analyses involving nested data. 

8/1/2024 - I am thrilled to share that my NSF CAREER proposal has been funded! It's a five-year project with a total budget of $1.24 million.  This project will develop new methods and tools for statistical power and sample size computations in the design of longitudinal experimental and quasi-experimental studies. You can view the award abstract at https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2339353.

I joined the Editorial Board of the Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness (JREE) on June 1, 2023. JREE is the official Journal of the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness (SREE). It is dedicated to publishing rigorous studies of 1) the effects of educational policies, practices, and programs; 2) the theories, contexts, and mechanisms that underlie such effects; and 3) methodological advances in educational research. 

Our paper entitled "Experimental Design and Statistical Power for Cluster Randomized Cost-Effectiveness Trials " (with Nianbo Dong, Rebecca Maynard, Jessaca Spybrook, and Ben Kelcey) was accepted by the Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, the flagship journal of The Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness.  

One project entitled "Scaling Targeted Reading Instruction (TRI) to Serve Students Impacted by COVID-19: Digital Implementation of an Effective Intervention" was funded by IES recently, where I will serve as a Co-PI and will lead the design and analysis of the cost study through a quasi-experimental design.