By Divya Pavuluri, Quill Writer
Teachers at River Hill High School are getting unexpected help with one very time-consuming task: writing letters of recommendation.
Naviance, the college and career readiness platform used across Howard County, has rolled out a new artificial intelligence (AI) feature that can generate full recommendation letters for teachers based on student data and input. The update, which appeared in Teacher’s Naviance earlier this fall, allows them to select a student and receive a draft of a recommendation letter in seconds.
The strongest criticism of the new policy centers on the belief that letters of recommendation should reflect a teacher’s personal knowledge of a student, something AI cannot replicate. River Hill Junior Eliza Buchman said that “AI doesn’t know students personally, but the teachers certainly do…I am comfortable with my teachers using AI to help organize lesson plans, but the second they use it for something that I asked them for, not AI, I don’t feel comfortable with it being used. This feature needs to be removed.” She warned that once AI is permitted in one part of the letter-writing process, it becomes difficult to constrain how extensively it will be used.
A survey regarding personal opinions about the AI tool in naviance had many respondents that echoed this concern, describing the feature as “easily misused,” “unfair to students,” or “hypocritical” given that students face strict limits on AI use in their own coursework. A couple teachers expressed strong opposition. Advanced Art teacher Ms. Appel urged Howard County Public Schools to request the feature’s removal from Naviance entirely and stated that if its elimination proves impossible, teachers should be formally instructed not to use it. She said, “Speaking for myself personally, when I make a commitment to write a letter of recommendation for a student, I am committing to write that letter myself! I ask my students to commit to the process of doing their own work, and I have the same expectations for myself. If it were up to me, I would want HCPSS to request that the AI assist be removed from Naviance, or guide teachers not to use it.” Additionally, Mr. Tromble, an English teacher, said “I write a lot of letters of rec, so I was curious to see what the AI feature would come up with. The results were ludicrous—very impersonal and extremely inaccurate. I doubt any teacher would actually just print up what the AI feature spits out.”
Many expressed worry that AI-generated letters could become repetitive, generic or inaccurate, undermining the purpose of providing colleges with individualized evaluations. Another River Hill junior who responded to the survey, Anayah Hassan, argued that recommendation letters are intended to communicate personal knowledge of who a student is beyond grades or test scores. They warned that AI-written letters risk blending together to the point where college admissions officers may no longer trust them. They also emphasized that teachers should be required to disclose any use of AI so students can choose a different person to write a recommendation if they prefer.
Although opposition to this new feature was dominant, a minority of students and teachers viewed the feature as a practical time-saving tool in a heavily burdened system. Some students described it as “useful,” emphasizing that teachers should simply contribute the majority of the letter while AI provides editing and organizational support. Some survey respondents favored restricting AI to grammatical polishing or small scale rewriting, comparing it to tools already used widely by students and teachers. For these individuals, the use of AI in letters of recommendation could ease teacher workloads without fully replacing human judgement.
Teacher perspectives were similarly varied. Spanish teacher Ms. Stern, who responded to the survey, recognized the strain on educators, noting that the teachers spend hours of unpaid time completing recommendation letters. She nevertheless argued that AI undercuts the personalization that gives recommendation letters value in the admissions process, ultimately making it inappropriate for teachers to rely on.
The feature offers teachers several editing options. They can adjust the tone, emphasize specific traits or even ask the AI to rewrite the draft in a more emotional style. Naviance officials say the tool is meant to assist, not replace, teachers’ voices. However, the line between help and replacement remains blurry.
Another concern regarding AI use is the environmental effect. The AI option in Naviance is promoting the use of AI, and therefore indirectly contributing to increased energy consumption. The United Nations Environment Programme explains that AI systems rely on large data centers, which require massive amounts of electricity and water in order to operate. These facilities produce significant carbon emissions, and the hardware powering them comes with its own environmental costs. Manufacturing a single 2 kg computer requires approximately 800 kg of raw materials. This raises concern that incorporating AI tools into routine school processes, such as recommendation letters, adds to this growing environmental burden.
As Howard County teachers and students continue debating the new feature, many agree that the conversation is far from over. Some hope that clearer guidelines from Howard County or Naviance itself could help establish boundaries around appropriate AI use. Others believe that policies such as requiring teachers to notify students when AI tools are involved, could offer a middle ground. Ultimately, this feature has sparked broader questions about the role of artificial intelligence in education: Where should the line be drawn between meaningful assistance and inappropriate replacement? And how can schools balance efficiency, ethics and environmental responsibility?
For now, the future of AI-assisted or fully AI written recommendation letters in Howard County remains uncertain. What is clear is that students, teachers and administrators will need to navigate this evolving technology together, ensuring to preserve the integrity of the college application process.