Janet, very interesting. Students from school systems outside the US tend to do very well within the US system. There are any number of articles that demonstrate how the US has consistently been trending downward with regard to their world ranking in both K-12 and Higher Education. You may find some value in speaking with your students from other school environments and see if there are some gems of wisdom worth cultivating from their past experiences. Would be interesting to hear from others with regard to how well their ESL students perform within their US classrooms. James Jackson