Private School Administration Altering Letters of Recommendation?
We are moving our child from one private elementary school to another for the 2024-25 school year. We just learned that the school administration of our now-former school revised the letters of recommendation our child's teacher wrote before they were submitted to the potential new schools. The revisions were made specifically so that the letters focused less on our child's strengths and more on their challenges, with the apparent goal of preventing our child from being admitted elsewhere and leaving the school, so they could keep our tuition dollars (we have heard this from multiple teachers and from other parents). Fortunately, our child was nonetheless accepted at a school that seems like it will be a good fit, but rejected from many others, as were other kids who are leaving the prior school.
I'm outraged, saddened (as we thought we liked the old school), and wondering what to do about this, if anything. Has anyone ever heard of this happening? Am I being paranoid by thinking this was essentially sabotage? I assume that while terribly unethical, this is not illegal, given that it's all private school stuff. But I would hate for this to happen to other kids, so wonder if I should blow the whistle somehow. Or maybe this is just standard private school BS? Thanks for any advice, insight, or commiseration.
Parent Replies
This sounds really strange to me. It is absolutely not "standard private school BS." I've taught in bay area private schools over the past 20 years and have always submitted my recommendation letters directly to the school to where the student is applying (now exclusively through online portals). While I occasionally have shown an administrator a copy of my letter for feedback, it's been my own choice to do so. I've never been required to show it to administration nor have been asked to include/exclude/change the content.
Were you told this specifically by the recommendation writers (teachers)? If it's just parents talking, I would be suspicious of rumors (they might be sore for not receiving recommendations and consequently trying to justify it?). But if you have information from the recommendation writers, I might ask them for advice on the best course of action. If you feel like you can't go to the division head or head of school (maybe the recommendation writers fear job retaliation), I would reach out to a board member that you trust and share your concerns with them. While getting the board involved can be tricky, it sounds like administration isn't particularly trustworthy right now and the board should know that.
I'm sorry this happened to you. I remember signing something that said I basically agree to have no access to the application once it was submitted including the teacher's recommendations.
A private school is a business or nonprofit entity that is required to comply with requirements imposed by the jurisdiction, county, city, or other locality in which it is located, such as zoning, health and safety codes, fire codes, or other local ordinances.
Based on the above, I wonder if you could make a complaint to the BBB. I would also see if you can get a copy of the original letters from the teachers to compare with the ones submitted to the new school. That would be the best evidence.
I'm curious how you even found out.
My lens on this depends a lot on whether the resulting letter was more or less reflective of your child's actual strengths and challenges. If the teacher wrote a glowing recommendation but didn't mention areas in which your child does in fact struggle--absolutely the school should be including that in their overall assessment, because it is a key piece of whether your child will be successful in the new school. If, in contrast, the administration fabricated challenges that do not actually exist, that would be hugely problematic and unethical.
How did you learn that the letter had been altered, and what made you believe that the intent was to keep your child at the existing school? I'd start there. Teacher recommendation letters for ISSFBA member schools are supposed to be confidential and teachers typically mail them directly to the receiving school--they shouldn't be going via the administration in the first place, so the fact that this one apparently did makes me wonder why. The other wondering is whether the administrators at the school know your child personally. At my child's school, they absolutely do and would be able to speak candidly about strengths and challenges. If your school is larger and the administrators don't really know your child, then again, adding anything to a letter of recommendation feels more problematic. However, if they do know your child and believe that the letter does not accurately reflect your child, I would expect an administrator to step in and add that information (though this would ideally be in the form of a supplemental letter, rather than changing anything in the original).
As far as what to do--I think it is appropriate to reach out to the admissions director at the former school, who likely handles outgoing applications, and simply ask (assuming that you learned about this through above-board channels). If you feel that the resulting letter no longer accurately reflects who your child is, it's reasonable to ask why it was changed. However, I would be open to hearing that the answer is that they do feel that it is an accurate reflection--parents do not always see some of the challenges that bubble up during the school day (and vice versa). If it does capture what they see while your child is at school, you may want to have a conversation with the new school about strategies to address these challenges. I hope it is a smooth transition and that the new school works out well for you all!
If this indeed happened, it would be way outside the bounds of standard or ethical practice. I work in an independent school, and I've never heard of such a thing. But given the way most schools handle recommendation letters, what you describe would likely not even be possible. Most bay area independent schools use the Ravenna platform, where teachers submit their letters directly through Ravenna -- administrators would not even be able to see the letter, much less alter it. So I'm curious about where you got the intel that admin was altering teacher letters. You say that other parents told you, but how would they know? The privacy of recommendation letters is strictly covered by FERPA regulations -- other parents should not have had access to their own child's letters, much less your child's letters. Indeed, many schools will only accept letters that families have waived their rights to read. So what I'm saying is that, for a few reasons, the scenario you describe sounds highly unlikely. But if it did somehow happen, it would be a pretty shocking scandal.
In addition to teacher letters, many schools ask for a letter from the child's guidance counselor, or principal, or some other administrator -- perhaps this is the letter you mean? In this case, the principal may have submitted her own letter that was indeed more negative. But school admissions offices are pretty savvy, and are able to recognize patterns in recommendations from certain schools or recommenders. If every kid trying to transfer out of a given school had similarly negative letters, admissions would likely notice this and discount the letters.
That's horrible!! And definitely not something that the school administration should do. Others may have suggestions, but at a minimum I would write the reviews on every platform available (Google reviews, Yelp, Niche, etc) and warn other parents. One of the best ways to get the administration to stop doing this is for them to understand that altering letters is going to hurt their enrollment more than not altering them. Few new families will want to enroll in a school where they might be trapped down the road due to a malicious administration.
Hi there,
I am so sorry to hear this. I would definitely blow the whistle to warn other families who might be considering this private school. As a family looking at other schools, I would want to avoid a school like this.
As a private school parent myself, I hope that you find the courage to blow the whistle and help other families avoid such a terrible situation. Sadly, without shedding public light on such unethical behavior, such toxic actions are likely to continue and more students will be targeted unknowingly.
I'm so sorry to hear you experienced this. I would echo the other replies and encourage you to write an honest review of your prior school and post it on multiple platforms including Yelp and BPN. What you're describing sounds unethical and other parents who are considering your prior school would benefit from knowing that this happened. Best of luck to you and your child at your new school!
As a teacher in a private school, I can agree with all the other posts who say that teacher recommendations go straight to the applying school. However, at one 2nd to 8th grade private school on the Peninsula that I used to work at, the school "required" that teachers send their recommendations to the "head of next school placement" for an apparent "check" that what we said was acceptable. When I taught 5th grade, I had many students apply to other schools for middle school, and I refused to show my recommendations to anyone. I felt it was a HUGE invasion of privacy. I was scolded by the administration when they found out I submitted recommendations without them seeing them. They claimed they just put the recs "in their file" which I found very sketchy. So, sadly, yes, there are schools who do not honor a teacher's autonomy to write recs that are honest in good and bad ways. If this is happening at your school, you should absolutely call them out. It is completely unethical.