Principals are asked to write recommendations on behalf of students seeking admission to colleges, universities and trade schools. In this type of referral, the principal usually discusses the student's grade-point average and participation in school clubs and organizations. Typically, the principal would also provide an evaluation of the student's leadership skills, ability to work well on teams and likability among teachers and students. If the principal doesn't know the student well enough to provide this information, the data can be gathered from the student's file and from talking to the student's teachers.
Principals are also asked to refer students for induction into national scholastic organizations or for scholarships and grants. As with college admission recommendations, the principal would discuss the student's school participation and ability to work well with others. However, unlike colleges that admit thousands of students a year, academic inductions and scholarships are limited to a much smaller pool, and this highly selective process results in more rigid requirements; therefore, the principal may need to provide more extensive details to present the student as an outstanding candidate.
Principals are asked to refer students for extracurricular activities like summer jobs, educational trips sponsored by third-party organizations and selective sports or other performance-based camps. Referrals for these types of opportunities normally focus on the student's work ethic, maturity level and degree of personal responsibility as well as her ability to work well on teams. For many sports and other talent-specific referrals, staff members like the student's coach, music teacher, etc., may be asked to provide a referral either in addition to or in place of the principal.
Some students struggle to succeed in school, and this may manifest in negative behavior which includes fighting with other students, rebelling against teachers, disrupting classes, consuming drugs and alcohol, threatening the safety of others, skipping school on a regular basis and other actions that indicate a typical school setting is not a good fit. In these cases, principals write referrals to have the troubled students transferred to an alternative school environment. For this type of referral, the principal would outline the student's behavioral problems and provide a justification for removing the student from the current school setting.