<p>Reality check- you just don’t know what a teacher is going to say about a kid. At least in this situation, you know the drill.</p>
<p>However, having given many a job-related recommendation and performance appraisal in my day, “inconsistent effort” when amplified into a sentence or a paragraph, is either going to turn into, “this kid is a major slacker and goof ball”, or “this kid can be brilliant when the material engages him”. If there are other issues with the application, I would be very careful asking this teacher for a reference, unless there’s nobody else to ask.</p>