Why would public school teachers be forbidden from giving recommendation letters for students applying @ private school
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But the problem there is - that's what high schools do in part. They write letters of recommendation all the time for college applicants. The office in fact provides forms to request the letters from teachers and due dates etc. Same thing.
ETA - and if they were concerned about lawsuits, then what difference if it were a public or private school?
But the problem there is - that's what high schools do in part. They write letters of recommendation all the time for college applicants. The office in fact provides forms to request the letters from teachers and due dates etc. Same thing.
ETA - and if they were concerned about lawsuits, then what difference if it were a public or private school?
Mostly because college is CONTINUED education rather than ALTERNATE education. They have to write college letters. That BTW is still a risk as far as lawsuits go. Its all about mitigating risk these days.
How is that mitigating any risk? Because students in CONTINUED education don't walk onto campus and shoot people?
Has nothing to do with physical risk. Many colleges will not accept an application without a recommendation letter. Sort of forces the hand of school systems to write them. They certainly would prefer not to but still have to since its the norm for continued education. The risk I'm talking about is civil litigation. I.E. "Why did you write a recommendation letter for little Johnny to go to private school but refused to write one for my little Jane? Even though she is a lousy student with bad grades, I'm going to sue you because the real reason you refused was because....you have always hated her.....you don't like our religion.....you don't like our race.........you don't like her gender....."
People can sue for any reason. The less chance you give them, the more you mitigate the risk of litigation, and save school system money. Like I said - its not fair but unfortunately its the way school systems have to think.
It seems to me that a reference would be a better term/request than a recommendation. A reference is generally known to be used to confirm facts regarding the current situation that may relate to a future one.
A recommendation, on the other hand, is an opinion as to the person in the current situation being a good fit for the future situation.
Therefore if the public school had been asked to confirm things such as the grade level, grades attained and attendance of said child, they would have likely done so willingly.
However asking a public school to state they fully believe a student would be a good fit for a private school and make a great contribution to their community is something far more subjective and they would probably be less willing to take that leap.
Writing recommendations is not a requirement in any scenario, be it school or work. It is a voluntary action and anyone can choose not to participate.
While colleges do require recommendations they can come from all sorts of sources, not solely from the the previous school attended. They can come for work experiences, volunteer experiences or even from long time friends. Even those that do choose to write one from a previous school can do so by providing the same statistics I mentioned above and leaving it at that. There's no guarantee one will get a glowing, prose filled recommendation.
It seems to me that a reference would be a better term/request than a recommendation. A reference is generally known to be used to confirm facts regarding the current situation that may relate to a future one.
Therefore if the public school had been asked to confirm things such as the grade level, grades attained and attendance of said child, they would have likely done so willingly.
That is part of what I meant. They are doing that part - attendance, test scores, last report card received, etc. However, and this will probably clear up some of the confusion, there is another form that is more like a reference (better word, I agree). It is CONFIDENTIAL so I don't see how any lawsuit can result from it because the parent never knows what the teacher has said about the student. It is standard practice for previous private and public school teachers to fill these forms out for a student, esp. if they are transferring to an OUT OF STATE school.
This form includes a series of words, some positive, some negative, some a bit of both qualities, that the teacher circles to best describe the child. Then there are a few questions that is up to the teacher's discretion that give the private school a clue about how the child behaves in the classroom, both academically and socially, and that lets the private school know if that child seems like a good fit for their community.
I wasn't really looking for speculation about lawsuits as much as information about if anyone had had this happen to them. Without this part of the application, DS may not be seriously considered for a spot in the private schools we're looking at. Those schools simply wouldn't understand why the teacher wouldn't fill out such a form when other schools have (both other private schools and public).
As for public schools not liking losing students to private schools, that's plain silly in this case, as we're MOVING OUT OF STATE.
Some added info......both of my older daughters are teachers but in two different school districts. I asked them each this question just a bit ago. Both replied that they are not allowed to give a reference, recommendation at all nor to give any other sort of communication regarding a student to anyone other than the parent.
My oldest teaches 4th grade and was asked this past year by a parent to give her a list of things her child was needing help in so that she could take it to a tutoring company in order to help them tailor a program for her child. My daughter asked her principal about this since it was something a bit different and found that she could not do so according to district rules. She could officially hold a parent conference and put the discussion in writing and give the parent a copy, but that was all she could do.
She was also asked to give a recommendation for a student in order to help them get into another elementary that had a specialized program different from their own and had to tell the parent she was not allowed to do so. The parent asked if she could do it and not tell anyone and she had to tell her she was not allowed to do so.
So, it's more about the privacy of a student from her understanding than it is about anything necessarily regarding potential lawsuits.
My second has just finished her first year and hasn't come upon anything like this, however she was trained that no recommendation letters could be written without approval from the admin and then only for college admission purposes. Again, it's district policy.
She was also asked to give a recommendation for a student in order to help them get into another elementary that had a specialized program different from their own and had to tell the parent she was not allowed to do so. The parent asked if she could do it and not tell anyone and she had to tell her she was not allowed to do so.
So, it's more about the privacy of a student from her understanding than it is about anything necessarily regarding potential lawsuits.
My second has just finished her first year and hasn't come upon anything like this, however she was trained that no recommendation letters could be written without approval from the admin and then only for college admission purposes. Again, it's district policy.
Thank you for this information. I think that any district that has this policy is being idiotic. It's harmful to the child when the parent is only acting in the child's best educational interests. It's like a catch-22, the child needs help, needs a different environment and would blossom under a different curriculum, however, the person whose appraisal would most benefit the child, is not allowed to say anything for what reason, specifically? Privacy? I doubt my DS cares about that sort of thing when he has actively asked to go to a private school when we move. Crazy. I can hardly believe the times we are living in.
I taught 29+ years, so I had my share of these forms. In our large urban district, several schools with G&T programs started at grade 5. Many kids went off to the private schools at this level as well. (Same thing happened after grade 8 for kids going to HS)
Yes, we hated to let the top kids go, but there was nothing you could do about it. We all filled out the forms -- and what most teachers don't like is to be brutally honest. IMHO, you do the student a disservice and also the new school unless you are. If a student can't handle science and math but wants to apply to a G&T Science program, shouldn't you let them know the child might not be a good fit? Who does that information really hurt? The child or the school? [Here, the G&T schools could "dump" kids back into a regular school if the child did not do well -- so, in my opinion, it is the kid you hurt.]
One thing I did was to mail the evaluation directly to the new school; during 29+ years, more than 15 parents tried to "lose" my evaluations.... like I said, I think brutal honesty is better than b.s.
Wow - I've heard of companies not saying anything negative when called for a reference but not saying anything positive either? That's a new one on me. All of the blame game stuff going on - it's a sad state when you can't (as a teacher or employer) provide a reference.
That's the way it's been for every company I've worked at for the last 10 years. Letters of Recommendation are forbidden.
They're not allowed to say anything over the phone either---except start date and end date.
But most managers will side step the company policy and give recommendations over the phone.
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