I don't see why parents are asked to fill out these papers, nor do I understand why your guidance office would keep them. That, it seems to me, would lead to 2-3 teacher recommendations all citing the same "story". If I were the reader, that would catch my notice -- and not in a good way. Plus, I don't see how I as a teacher could "work in" a parental-type story, something that I myself didn't witness. It just sounds odd.
Some of my students -- always my better students -- come to me with "resumes" that summarize their high school experiences. That's helpful. I think 1-2 of the guidance counselors push this idea, but none of the ones I see are standardized, so I think they're suggesting it and students are doing it on their own. I've never had any idea that parents helped with them.
However, as a teacher, I do have a form that I require my students to fill out before I'll write a recommendation for them. I write loads of these recommendations each school year, and although I usually have plenty to say about the student in my own classroom and I usually know who plays a school sport or is in the band or on the school newspaper staff, I often do not know whether he's a good math student, whether he's in the National Honor Society, whether he's active in clubs outside school, what he plans to study in college, etc. Here's what it includes:
Student's full name. Perhaps I've called the student Trey Smith, but the university knows him as William James Smith III. I would hate for a student's paperwork to be mixed up, or for him to lose his opportunity because of such a small detail.
ID numbers or other information the school wants on every page; this is fairly rare, but some schools want the student's date of birth (or an application number) to appear on every page. Again, competition is tight, and I don't want to disqualify my students for such a piddly reason. When readers are faced with hundreds of letters, they do sometimes toss candidates for trivial things like this.
When is this recommendation due? I need a week to write a first letter for a student -- I may not be able to get to it this very evening, and sometimes I sit down and find that I just have nothing to say. Usually the next day I am in a more prolific mood, and I do better -- I don't work well with a "I should've asked you sooner, but it's due tomorrow" request. Once I've written a first letter, I save it in my computer, and often I am able to pop out a second letter (which is the first letter tweeked for a different school) in short order.
Is this letter for university admission, for a scholarship, or another purpose? I need to say clearly "This student will succeed in your university, and I give him my highest recommendation for admission" or "This student is an outstanding candidate for this scholarship". Or whatever's appropriate.
Name/address of school/scholarship program. You'd be surprised how many students ask me to write recommendations, yet they don't have this basic information ready for me.
Am I to fill out a form, write a letter, or both? Before I started using this form, students'd ask me to write them a recommendation, and after I'd written a letter they'd "discover" that a form was supposed to be enclosed in the envelope. Really, about half the students who ask me to write recommendations are rather clueless on how to ask for a good letter, and they don't give me good guidance on exactly what their school wants.
What traits should I emphasize in this letter? This is more about scholarships, though it can matter for admission letters too. I need to know whether this scholarship is looking at pure academics, whether it wants students who've demonstrated leadership in community service, or something else altogether. If they're looking for needy students with leadership experience, I may write a pure-gold letter about the student's academic prowess . . . but it won't help him. I have had students tell me that I can google the scholarship and find out for myself. Uh, no. You tell me the point of the scholarship, and I'll say as many good things as I can about you within those parameters. If you're not willing to do the homework, you're going to get a generic letter.
What should I do with the letter? Sometimes I'm to mail it to the school myself (if so, give me an addressed, stamped envelope), other times I'm to return it to the student in a sealed envelope, and other times I'm to give it to the student's guidance counselor. Admissions lettters are fairly standard, but scholarships vary widely. As I've already said a couple times, I'd hate for my students to lose their opportunity to win because I sent the letter to the wrong place.
What do you plan to study in college?
What do you plan to do with that degree?
Why are you well-suited for this?
What classes in high school have particularly prepared you for your college work?
What is your GPA?
Then I have a chart that asks about the clubs/sports in which they've participated in high school. Outside school. And I ask about leadership positions. Again, the reasons are evident. Often I know who's been on the school newspaper staff, but I don't know who's served as an officer in ROTC.
Have you worked during high school?
Where?
How many hours?
How many hours?
What are your responsibilities
What have you learned from this experience?
Volunteer / community service? It's best if this is something ongoing (i.e., helped with Vacation Bible School for the last five years), and it's best if it's not just something that was required for a club. Today's teens are expected to have been involved in community service; if they aren't, it will absolutely hurt their chances at scholarships.
Have you experienced any significant challenges in high school? Sometimes I'm surprised to learn that the student is going into special ed because she's worked with a handicapped sibling at home, or that the student's father has been away in Iraq for long periods of time.
What other information would be useful for this recommendation?
This form helps me write good letters of recommendation for my students. Yes, I know them -- as students in one class. The more information I have, the better I can help them. Lately my students have been asking me to fill out the Common Application Recommendation Form online. Personally, I prefer to write a good letter and mail it in, but I do see the appeal of the online form. The student can see whether I've done the form, and he can forward it on to another school without bothering me to write another letter.
If I could emphasize one thing to younger students -- those who aren't yet asking for their letters -- it'd be that they should aim for a well-rounded high school career. I have seen straight-A, loads of AP classes students turned down in favor of an A-B student who had lots of leadership experience in addition to good grades. I'm not saying sacrafice the academics; I'm saying don't let academics be the whole ballgame. I find it hard to write a recommendation for the student who has nothing but academics.
One more thing: When your child asks a teacher to write a letter of recommendation, always have him or her write a thank you note. So few students do this, and showing gratitude is a nice concept to instill in your child, especially in this overly-entitled generation. The teacher spends at least an hour "above and beyond" the classroom to write these letters, and a thank you is much appreciated.
I do understand that it has to be hard to *know* hundreds and hundreds of kids well enough to be writing letters for them though!
