New letter of recommendation policy is necessary, will prove beneficial for students

By Kareena Dhillon 

Exec opinion editor 

Select Social Science Department teachers at Mira Costa introduced new criteria for receiving a letter of recommendation following the rise in the number of students not taking history classes during the school year. As more students take their history prerequisites over the summer, history teachers and students both suffer. 

As a result, teachers Aaron Kofahl and Ian Uhalt have introduced a new policy for writing letters of recommendation. They will only write letters for students who take their history classes at Costa during the regular school year.  

Fortunately, this policy is only enacted from here on out, meaning that students who took classes outside of Costa in the past will still be eligible for a letter  from Kofahl or Uhalt. As long as they take all future history classes at Costa, any student will be able to get a letter of recommendation from these teachers. This makes the new policy feasible and very considerate on the behalf of students.  

Halfway through the 2017-2018 school year, the Social Science Department implemented a new grading scale. This scale was adopted in an attempt to encourage students to take history classes at Costa during the school year, benefitting both students and teachers. 

Based on a previous survey, it was unanimously agreed that students who come out of classes not taken at Costa were vastly underprepared for the next school year. According to Kofahl, they are lacking in their historical thinking skills and content knowledge.  Therefore, this new policy truly looks out for the best interest of the student. History classes are required for a reason, and currently students are not getting the level of knowledge they need as they go on in their educational careers. Taking classes during the year at Costa also encourages students to consider  AP history classes, so they can take the AP exam for college credit. This policy also encourages students to consider the many AP history courses offered at Costa, which gives them a chance to earn college credit through AP tests. Both the grading scale and letter of rec policy are efforts to incentivize students to take their classes in a more academic setting. 

It is also worth noting that teachers are not required to write letters of rec. They do so to help their students as they continue on with their academic career. This new policy is only trying to help students, so it is reasonable that teachers want to incentivize students to take classes at Costa.

It is also expected considering their time should be given to students who want to maximize their learning experience and make the effort to do so. Kofahl and Uhalt have been very public about this policy, but more efforts will have to be made so that all students are aware of this policy before making any decisions regarding their class schedules. 

Thirteen teachers have since agreed with this new policy, and a few are considering adopting this policy as well in the future. It is important that students are held to the same standard that Costa holds its teachers to. This policy will not only benefit the teachers at Costa, but it will help students gain more knowledge in the long run.