ABSTRACT
Michael Bishop was at Oakdale Middle School last April when the results of the recent statewide proficiency tests were released. He’d been meeting with middle school teachers involved in pilot testing the educational games his team had developed for middle school science classes. As he left the training session he found Nancy Levin, the district-level science curriculum specialist, in the hallway, talking with Paul Russell, the Oakdale principal. Michael, a researcher at the university and the director of the project developing the science games, had been working with Nancy for two years now, and they had an easy relationship. So he approached her smiling, not yet realizing how serious the conversation was.
