{"id":418,"date":"2022-01-12T12:56:24","date_gmt":"2022-01-12T17:56:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/registration-records\/?page_id=418"},"modified":"2022-04-04T08:43:59","modified_gmt":"2022-04-04T12:43:59","slug":"references-recommendations-and-ferpa","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/registration-records\/faculty-staff-advisors\/references-recommendations-and-ferpa\/","title":{"rendered":"References\/Recommendations and FERPA"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Writing recommendation letters\/ providing references for students; Issues and concerns:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are two Types of Recommendation\/Reference Letters. The first type of letter includes faculty\/staff personal observations or assessments of the students and uses subjective statements such as \u201cgreat student,\u201d \u201cparticipates in class discussions\u201d or \u201cmediocre performance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>No permission is needed for this type of letter because the information provided is limited to personal observations of the student\u2019s activities and performance. These are subjective evaluations of the student\u2019s abilities, motivations, and potential, written out of the writer\u2019s personal knowledge of the student.&nbsp; For example: \u201cThe student displays a natural ability to conduct research independently and reaches conclusions that exhibit substantial depth of understanding.\u201d Notice that nothing identifiable is given away in this example, not even the student\u2019s gender.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The second type of letter includes information from the student\u2019s education record \u2013 Recorded data, personally identifiable to the student, and maintained by the institution. Specific things, such as test scores, GPA, or grades received in a course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Permission is required for this type of letter because the information is personally identifiable non-directory information that is maintained by the university. GPA and grades will never be classified as \u201cDirectory Information;\u201d sharing them without permission violates FERPA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition, the writer should be made aware of whether the student has formally waived the right to subsequently review the letter or not. This knowledge may influence what the writer includes in the letter. Once written, the letter itself becomes an education record, because it will (or should) be maintained by the institution. This includes paper as well as electronic copies. It is recommended that you have students complete the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2067\/Letter-of-Reference-Request-and-Student-Authorization.pdf\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2067\/Letter-of-Reference-Request-and-Student-Authorization.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">University of Rhode Island Letter of Reference Request and Student Authorization Release for Recommendation<\/a>\u00a0form before completing any recommendation\/reference request for a student.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Remember, students and writers have both rights and responsibilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Students have both:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The right to review personal education records.<\/li><li>The responsibility to provide a written request for every letter of recommendation.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Writers also have both:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The right to insist on a written request for every letter of recommendation \u2013 put that responsibility on the student, not on your-self.<\/li><li>The responsibility to protect yourself and the University.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><em>(Adapted from \u201cFERPA &amp; Letters of Recommendation\u201d, University of Florida Office of the Registrar 2013, Web.12 December 2015)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Writing recommendation letters\/ providing references for students; Issues and concerns: There are two Types of Recommendation\/Reference Letters. The first type of letter includes faculty\/staff personal observations or assessments of the students and uses subjective statements such as \u201cgreat student,\u201d \u201cparticipates in class discussions\u201d or \u201cmediocre performance.\u201d No permission is needed for this type of letter [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":0,"parent":710,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-418","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/registration-records\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/registration-records\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/registration-records\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/registration-records\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/77"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/registration-records\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/registration-records\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/418\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1025,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/registration-records\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/418\/revisions\/1025"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/registration-records\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/registration-records\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}