Thank you for posting this illuminating, detailed checklist of vital questions. The ancient Roman wisdom that the buyer - or ESL teacher in this - should beware!

Yet it also, like another thread which I posted to, emphasizes another point: the apparent difficulty in acquiring factual information about schools teaching English.

Does somebody rate or rank international schools that teach English? If not, why not?

This entire thread illuminates why I have passed on several offers to teach in China and Thailand. I don't really know - outside of working in an elite university and/or visiting the campus/school first- how one would verify the information in ads. Consider me more cautious than curious.

On the other hand, I know that thousands and thousands of English teachers have found wonderful work teaching in both China and Thailand. As so often in these matters, I end up defer to various rankings and/or personal experiences of friends. If someone wants to learn engineering, there are many rankings that they can look at published by experts. Teaching English has become such a huge field that somebody and I have no idea who must evaluate school or chain claims. Right?

So, does anybody know of an organization that ranks English language schools - by quality or location? Does TESOL have some list of approved or sanctioned schools? Does somebody else perhaps even local governments track the effectiveness of schools? Further, what is their criteria? Where can individuals students, teachers, parents get that simple, yet vital bit of information?

I would suspect, especially for international students of considerable income, that there would have to be somebody who attempts to grade, evaluate, and rank ESL schools. If I was going to travel to the United States, Australia, or the United Kingdom, I would certainly want to know the quality of the program and teachers. Even I was just going to a local English school, I would check on the school's reputation. Is it really possible that nobody has done this yet?

Again, consider me very curious.