SWW - Letters of Recommendation
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Anonymous
Thanks. The issue is they refused to tell me the due date for the letter. I believe the teacher did not know either. |
Anonymous
This link specifically says recommendation letters can be required. What am I missing? |
Anonymous
Attention to detail is critical and it's pretty evident why their is so much incorrect info here. The pp gave the general site but of course no one reads things anymore---- https://www.myschooldc.org/sites/default/files/dc/sites/myschooldc/page/attachments/SY24-25%20SWW_Admission%20Process%20Rubric_Final.pdf "School Without Walls uses recommendations to better understand a student’s experience at school and to provide context to their academic outcomes. Recommendations are a critical element to getting to know a student and their experiences. School Without Walls requests two (2) recommendations, each worth a maximum of 15points. We strongly encourage students and families to follow up with the individuals submitting recommendations on their behalf and to check the accuracy of recommender emails to ensure we have the most complete picture of the student as possible. However, students will not be penalized for incomplete or missing recommendations and can be evaluated to move on to the interview stage based on the recommendations that have been submitted." |
Anonymous
this is terrible! I think teachers should be given official PAID time to write letters of recommendation. This business of mandating recommendations for public school admissions without giving them time to actually write the letters is ridiculous and a disincentive. |
Anonymous
Not an assumption. The teacher was very open about not having a submitted a letter by the deadline. They did eventually submit one but SWW appears not have have considered it because it was submitted late, after the first round of interviews took place but not before the second round. I do not blame the teacher here. I blame Walls. They refused to tell me the deadline when I asked so I could stay on top of it. Would have been a really easy fix but they want to keep everything secret and hide their process and criteria. It’s also unclear why some students with missing recommendation letters were contacted and given an extension and others were not How did Walls decide which select students would get an extension and which would not? And why were they selective about who they contacted and who they didn’t? That’s a failure on their part. And possibly discriminatory. |
Anonymous
Thanks. This directly contradicts what Walls told me. They also actively refused to provide information about what they were looking for in the letters of recommendation, even if they would be providing a form or were requesting a narrative. They also refused to share the due date. All of that makes it pretty hard to follow up. When I asked for my child’s records to see exactly how they were scored I was stonewalled. I have filed a FERPA request but that can take a while, especially if they don’t comply. It seems like something is fishy or they would just hand over my child’s very small file without a fight. |
Anonymous
If they didn't follow those rules about missing recommendations, that really stinks, and I'm sorry your family went through it. I also contacted SWW to see if I could find out about my kid's scores. (When my older kid applied and interviewed and was waitlisted, I was able to find out DC's interview score.) It took multiple emails and one phone call but I finally found out that they will not divulge a kids' recommendation letter scores because they were written by teachers. At least, that's what I was told! |
Anonymous
Sorry you are going thru this but try to appeal to Central Office. No way they can they provide any info during the process. Simply not a priority with all they have to do. That's just facts! |
Anonymous
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I think SWW forgot that they are a public school. These are at least arguably part of a child's academic record. I can't see a valid reason why they are not considered academic records. I will move forward with filing a FERPA complaint with the Dept. of Ed if they refuse to give me these records. Although it should not be necessary to get the United States government involved, this did work when a different DCPS refused to give me records I was clearly entitled to review.
It's less clear to me how to remedy the issue that it appears SWW did not follow their own published admissions criteria, or seemingly contacted a select number of students to alter them that a recommendation letter was missing but chose not to contact all affected students. Curious about what criteria they used to choose the students who were granted an extension and those who were not.
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Anonymous
The due date at least was online in the myschooldc portal. And it allowed you to prod the teachers by sending them reminders |
Anonymous
They clearly know they are a public school but most of you don't realize it. The site gives the status of everything submitted as well as due dates. Sounds like you weren't prepared as well as you should have been for the process. SWW tries to get thru everything with its present staff but they miss things. Teachers still have to teach and grade. This is more on the teacher than anything. Maybe SWW can help since it does state in the guidelines the lack of recs won't penalize a kid. But what if a rec received already disqualified your kid? That's something you don't know yet. File your request but it won't help right now. Just be prepared either way. |
Anonymous
| I had a similar experience. Teacher submitted a letter after the deadline but it took months and several requests via email, in person, in writing. Some public school teachers are great with this kind of thing and some are busy and you need to extract it with a crowbar but the school we wanted needed one from that specific subject (maybe she was sick of it?). I know she is busy and I understand but it sucks for us. |
Anonymous
Just to be clear, the extension given for the recommendation (in our case) was before the first round of interviews took place (Feb. 22). So Walls had likely already calculated your child’s score by the time the teacher submitted the recommendation between the first and second round of interviews. |
Anonymous
NP but I think this is also a larger issue- how can a kid have a 4.0 and not get an interview? What is DCPS trying to pull with that? And how can a kid be penalized if the teacher doesn’t enter a rec letter? It’s just really inequitable. |
Anonymous
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Where was the due date on the portal? It’s possible I missed it, but ALSO inexcusable that the school refused to share the due date with me when I asked. If it was public information they could have at least pointed me to the portal, but they didn’t even do that, instead telling me that only teachers would be given this information.
It’s also inexcusable that they reached out to select students to inform them about the missing letters, and only the deadline for this select group. I’ve asked what criteria they used to select which students would be contacted and offered an extension and which would not.
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