Teacher recommendations is how the U.K. used to work. It might be interesting to see what the arguments were at the time, though grammar schools feel like they’ve been a hot topic for quite a long time now.
I don’t think teacher recommendations are great. Presumably parents who currently pay for test prep will instead throw money at getting good teacher recommendations through the right schools, teaching good manners, etc. If I look at my mother and her sister, one went to the grammar school and the other didn’t because they had gotten a new headmistress who didn’t really know the students. The grammar school stopped being selective after a few years anyway (did I mention that grammar schools have been a hot topic for a long time…) and I think the teachers struggled with the change. Perhaps another difference is that grammar schools are often single-sex which I think has a bunch of benefits and drawbacks.
I don’t think teacher recommendations are great. Presumably parents who currently pay for test prep will instead throw money at getting good teacher recommendations through the right schools, teaching good manners, etc. If I look at my mother and her sister, one went to the grammar school and the other didn’t because they had gotten a new headmistress who didn’t really know the students. The grammar school stopped being selective after a few years anyway (did I mention that grammar schools have been a hot topic for a long time…) and I think the teachers struggled with the change. Perhaps another difference is that grammar schools are often single-sex which I think has a bunch of benefits and drawbacks.