Up Close and Personal

Bucking the national craze for large-scale testing, one district focuses its efforts on the assessments teachers make in the classrooms.

By Lynn Olson

Lincoln, Neb.

First to go were the vocabulary quizzes. "I used to give them 15 words a week," recalls Teresa Abrahams, an English teacher at Lincoln Northeast High School here. "It was hideous," she shudders. "The quizzes I had designed didn't actually tell me if they knew the words or not."

Now, she assigns her students about eight vocabulary words a week. To ensure that the students understand the words, they must offer an analogy for two of them—along with a thorough explanation of their reasoning. On top of that, they have to define and provide antonyms for three words. And they have to write sentences for three more that make their meaning clear.

Such simple changes are part of a much more profound shift in how teachers in the 32,000-student Lincoln public schools use and...