Sara Allender

Overview

Sara Allender (she/her) is a leading expert in federal school choice policy with 20 years of experience in monitoring and evaluation. Her passion for effective, innovative, impactful education systems drives her commitment to education interest-holders across the spectrum of federal, state, and local levels.

As a Research Director in the School Choice content area, Allender provides monitoring and evaluation services for federal school choice discretionary grant programs. As the director of the Charter School Programs (CSP) Data Collection, Risk Assessment, and Monitoring project, Allender works closely with critical federal, state, and charter constituencies to support the effective administration and implementation of grant projects. Since its inception, the CSP monitoring and data collection projects have conducted over 250 monitoring visits to states, charter networks, and grant-funded schools.

Additionally, Allender is a lead evaluator and senior advisor for WestEd’s Magnet School Assistance Program (MSAP) grant evaluations. She works closely with district grantees to evaluate the impacts of their magnet school programs and oversees a team of evaluators who conduct mixed-methods evaluations of MSAP grants.

Prior to joining WestEd, Allender was a research analyst at Policy Studies Associates. There, she supported the implementation of a variety of education policy evaluations, including evaluations on after-school programs, small-school initiatives , and school libraries. Hailing from a family of educators, Allender is committed to the support of effective and impactful education systems and initiatives.

Education

• MSEd in education policy, University of Pennsylvania
• BA in politics, New York University

Select Publications

Nabors, A., Nakamoto, J., Tripathy, R., & Allender, S. (2023). Magnet school evaluation guide. WestEd.

Allender, S., & Evan, A. (2019). Identifying promising practices in charter schools: A framework for an evidence-based approach. WestEd.

Allender, S., Estacion, A., & Nabors, A. (2018). Working together to support equitable access to charter schools: Research and recommendations. WestEd.