For those of us who really care about education policy, the lack of writing in schools is one of our pet peeves. I see it even my own high achieving school district. Kids don't do enough writing. 

I've complained about the lack of writing in schools to various principals for years. If they are responsive principals, they respond by hiring a consultant who does workshops for the teachers. The schools buys some expensive writing packages that involve lots of worksheets for the kids. And then things settle back to the status quo, which is about two essays per year. If principals are unresponsive, they deny everything and tell me to shut up. 

Here's a good essay in the Atlantic about how writing is an important skill that kids need to learn. 

Perhaps writing would happen more often, if the teachers who assign writing projects were paid more than other teachers. Grading written assignments takes a lot of time. It's way harder to read 50 essays than 50 multiple choice tests that can be mechanically graded. It takes a lot patience and time to show individual kids how to improve their writing style. The teachers who assign these papers are grading them on Sunday nights. They should be paid for their time. 

However, that's not how it works in American schools. All teachers are paid the same, depending on the education level and their years of service. So, a gym teacher who has no prep work and no grading gets paid the same amount as an English teacher. The English teacher has no incentive to assign projects that use up their weekends and burns them out. 

We could encourage writing in schools, not by a new writing philosophy or system, but by adjusting the pay scales of teachers.