We've planned our curriculum, outlined our goals and delivered our lessons. How do we know whether students are meeting our benchmarks, and in my opinion, equally important, how do we as teachers know whether the lessons we've planned are working? We gain this knowledge through assessment - assessing the students and at the same time, assessing ourselves as educators. 

We assess students at different points in the year.

• Baseline - This occurs at the beginning of the year or at the beginning of the unit. Our goal is to find out the starting point, how much the student knows about a topic. As an example, in computer class, most of my students have been using word processing software for years, so I can bypass the more basic functions and teach them more advanced features. I am also made aware of students who haven't had the same experience, and I can make sure that they learn basics and don't get left behind.
• Formative - ongoing assessment that provides feedback to the student and teacher on the student's progress; using regular formative assessment also helps a teacher know whether to adjust the curriculum. This can include classroom quizzes and tests, projects, oral presentations, etc. See below for ideas.
• Summative - gives a picture of student achievement, level of conceptual understanding and performance capabilities. The summative can be a final exam or a major, culminating project that brings together various skills and concepts learned throughout the year.

Intel offers a very interesting site for structuring developing projects with structured assessment:

http://educate.intel.com/in/AssessingProjects/OverviewAndBenefits/

Here are different assessment tools that can be used: