You can enhance the following activities from the Instructor's Resource Manual by incorporating the resources available on the World Wide Web.

Goals in Curriculum Development

The Instructor's Resource Manual suggests:
Many school staffs now work collaboratively to develop school mission statements or to do schoolwide strategic planning. Invite representatives from a school that has gone through such a process to talk to the class about their experiences and about the goals for their school that they have identified. How and why did they choose the goals that they did, and what are they doing to implement their goals? Have they encountered any barriers to achieving their goals? If so, what are they what do they need to overcome them?

You may also want to have your students examine the mission statements of some schools. Here's one great site for finding schools:

Web 66
Web 66's International School Registry offers links to thousands of schools, worldwide.

Educational Goals and Objectives

The Instructor's Resource Manual suggests:
Examine goals and objectives in several curriculum guides from a local school district. Assess how well they provide guidance to school administrators and teachers in the district.

National Center for Education Statistics
The NCES "School District Locator" can help you contact schools districts to request their curriculum guides.

State Departments of Education
State departments of education may create statewide curriculum guides or standards. ERIC provides a handy map-based way to link to all of the state departments of education.

Effects of Task Force Reports

The Instructor's Resource Manual suggests:
Individually or in groups, ask students to identify a list of curriculum objectives that they think are most appropriate and needed for today's society. Have them discuss their reasoning. If possible, compare their objectives with the key themes of the Goals 2000 report or the 2001 federal educational plan, No Child Left Behind. How are their objectives similar to or different from those advocated in these reports?

You can access the national reports, for comparison, on the web:

Goals 2000
Here is the original Goals 2000 report, at the U.S. Department of Education web site.

National Education Goals Report 1999: Building a Nation of Learners
This report details progress toward the National Education Goals, also known as Goals 2000.

No Child Left Behind
Read President George W. Bush's 2001 plan for education at the U.S. Department of Education's web site.