Can't help but comment--though I should be doing my own writing at the moment. Damned thesis and all.
I work in a very different system. Here in la belle province (Quebec) we have the CEGEP (Collège d'Enseignement Général et Professionnel) system. It's community college, technical institute, and grade 12 all rolled into one. We have loi 101. It's a law passed in 1976 stating that all immigrants to Quebec (and some other groups, though I'm not fully conversant on this particular law and don't really like to get into arguments about it) must be educated in French until the end of secondary school--grade 11, for those in the US and the rest of Canada. According to 101 many students are only able to choose their language of education at the CEGEP level. This means that, as an English CEGEP, only 20% of our student population counts English as a first language. Of the remaining 80%, for whom the first 11 years of education was in French, 40% count English as a third, fourth or fifth language. As teachers, we are expected, after one 4-month semester, to have the students all writing at "college level". This means they should be able to write a competent 5-paragraph essay.
Oh, my job is fun.