The School-to-Work Opportunities Act of 1994 expanded on Perkins II's proactive elements by allowing states to combine federal education and job training program dollars so more meaningful school-to-work activities could be provided. In order to receive funding from the School-to-Work legislation, programs are required to include three components: (1) school-based learning, (2) work-based learning, and (3) connecting activities that link school- and work-based activities. The School-to-Work Opportunities Act is seen by many as legislation that "brings it all together" to form a powerful system. And since school-to-work involves educators and business, industry, public service, and community representatives in running the system, the organization, articulation, and collaboration activities can be daunting. This is especially true for educators in general and teachers in particular (Finch, 1997, pp. 72-73).
To make the changes emphasized in school-to-work transition legislation, schools must become places where responsibility is accepted for integrating work-related learning into the curriculum, as well as methods, materials, and strategies that support this learning. As Ryan and Imel (1996) noted,
Educators and the business community must move the school-to-work agenda forward, as educators alone cannot implement effectively the school-to-work vision. In fact to give all students the opportunities that a broad school-to-work movement can create, the involvement of civic organizations and many other groups will be critical. (p. 10)Employers must be invited to become partners in the school-to-work transition process. And the increased emphasis on linking schools and workplaces infers that educators should have an expanded set of roles and responsibilities. Historically, some educators have and continue to link with employers through various means including advisory committee activities, placement of cooperative students, school-based enterprises, career academies, actual work experience, and business and industry tours and observations. With the current Tech Prep and curriculum integration movements, some vocational and academic teachers and guidance counselors have had opportunities to interact with employers in various ways. Most teachers, however, do not perceive students' transition from school to work as an integral part of their teaching and give little or no effort to interfacing with employers. Kazis and Barton (1993) indicate that linking school and work will require extensive teacher professional development to provide teachers with the knowledge and skills needed to build programs with work-related experiences as well as new methods of assessment that will help students transition to work.
Thus, most teachers' current experiences are school-based and have not included ways that meaningful linkages can be created so students may be assisted as they transition to work. Deep-rooted tradition has led to school personnel viewing school-based learning as separate from work-based learning. The challenge, then, is to provide all teachers with opportunities to gain occupational-related knowledge, instructional expertise, and associated attitudes needed to interface effectively with employers (Pauley, 1994). To meet the school-to-work goal of moving from isolated programs to a system that helps large numbers of students successfully transition to work, all school personnel must understand and actively support the effort. As Stern, Finkelstein, Stone, Latting, and Dornsife (1994) note, "Within schools, major decisions must be made about the curriculum of school-to-work programs." They continue, "Building integrated school-to-work programs for large numbers of students will require the active collaboration of non-vocational teachers and departments" (p. 143).
This study focused on teachers within the context of school-to-work transition. Since successful school-to-work transition can demand a different set of teacher responsibilities than has been the case with traditional education, we posited that many new responsibilities would exist for teachers who are engaged in school-to-work transition activities. We thus sought to identify and delineate vocational and academic education teachers' involvement in and contributions to school-to-work transition. The following questions served to further focus our research: