Sara Allender is a Research Director at WestEd with over 20 years of experience in program evaluation and 18 years specializing in charter schools and school choice compliance. She has extensive experience designing and implementing rigorous monitoring frameworks to ensure program fidelity and fiscal accountability under applicable federal laws and regulations. From 2013-2025, she led WestEd’s Charter Schools Program (CSP) monitoring and data collection projects, overseeing the compliance monitoring for several charter school discretionary grants. Since 2017, she has also led or supported magnet school evaluations for school districts across the country.
Ms. Allender holds a BS in Politics from New York University and a MSEd in Education Policy from the University of Pennsylvania.
- Grades K–2
- Grades 3–5
- Grades 6–8
- Grades 9–12
- Improvement Science/Continuous Improvement
- School Districts/LEAs