In many states, including Ohio, there is a serious problem in the administration of the rules for what a teacher can teach. This has completely eroded the need for "real" physics teachers. The result of the administrative negligence is that the teaching of physics in high schools in Ohio (as well as the teaching of chemistry) is being taken over by biologists.
Many states (including Ohio) have adopted the standards set by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE). When it comes to science teachers, NCATE has adopted the standards set by NSTA (National Science Teachers Association).
NSTA designates several types of teaching licenses... Single Field License (e.g. you can teach physics only), Dual Field License (e.g. you can teach say both physics and chemistry), Broad Field License (you can teach any science course in high school), and Integrated Science License (you can teach any science course in high school that is an integrated course). Pay attention to the Integrated Science License because it is a major problem, and also pay some attention to the Broad Field License because it also is part of the problem.
The Single Field License requires the teacher to have a college major in the teaching field, and it specifically includes 20 semester hours (SH) of coursework in the teaching field at the junior or senior level (i.e. 20 SH of 300/400-level physics courses), plus one year of introductory courses in each of biology, chemistry, and earth/space science. So the person seeking a single-field license in physics is going to be a physics major that also took a year each of chemistry, biology, and earth/space science.
The Dual Field License requires at least 16 SH of 300/400-level courses in each of the two fields of science that will be taught. Suppose the dual fields are physics and chemistry. The teacher needs 16 SH of 300/400-level physics and 16 SH of 300/400-level chemistry. When coupled with the 100/200 level courses that would be prerequisites for the upper-level courses, this means a person getting a dual-field license in physics and chemistry would nearly complete a double major in physics and chemistry. Plus, the teacher needs one year of introductory courses in the other two field, in this case biology and earth/space science. Note that it is not necessary that the teacher actually had a major in physics or chemistry (as is the case with the single-field license). Of course most colleges and universities require a major in something, so the dual-field physics/chemistry teacher probably had a major in chemistry or physics, but it could be something else such as math.
Incidentally, at Bluffton University we have always had our students who have been interested in teaching either high school physics or chemistry follow the dual-field license because small high schools likely want the same person to teach both physics and chemistry.
The Broad Field License does require a major in any one of the areas of science, plus 16 SH of 300/400-level courses distributed in the three remaining areas. So the teacher could have a major in physics and also take 16 SH of 300/400-level courses distributed in chemistry, biology, and earth/space science. Note that this could amount to just one 3-SH 300-level course in chemistry, and one 3-SH 300-level course in earth/space, and 10-SH of 300-level courses in biology.
Let's turn that around and suppose the teacher is a biology major, and then takes one 3-SH 300-level course in chemistry, and one 3-SH 300-level course in physics, and 10-SH of 300-level courses in earth/space science. That means a biology major could be fully certified to teach high-school physics and high-school chemistry after taking just one 300-level course in each of chemistry and physics, and these would not even need to be lab courses. Of course, the biology major might have been required to take some lower-level chemistry and lower level physics courses just to get the biology major... and presumably the 300-level physics and 300-level chemistry courses have had prerequisite courses... but the physics and chemistry course requirements could be quite low.
Thus, students with a biology major can get licensed to teach any high-school science subject (including physics and chemistry) with nothing close to a physics degree nor a chemistry degree. That's all permitted within the rules. But to make matters worse, the high-school principals and superintendents don't pay that close of attention to the college transcripts. As long as the single-field licensed biology teacher shows a couple physics courses and a couple chemistry courses on the transcript, they will treat them as broad-field licensed even if they don't actually have that license, and even if their physics and chemistry courses were not at the 300-level.
It gets much worse.
The Integrated License does not require a major in any area of science. It just required one year of introductory course work in each of the four areas of biology, chemistry, physics, and earth/space science. Legally it does not allow the teacher to teach any of biology, chemistry, physics, or earth/space science at the high school level. The teacher with an integrated license can only teach middle-school science, or any course in high school that is titled "general science" or "integrated science." Repeat, the integrated license does not allow the teacher to teach a traditional high-school biology course, nor a chemistry course, nor a physics course, nor an earth science course. The course title must be "general science" or "integrated science."
The integrated license leads to two terrible problems...
[1] Many principals and superintendents don't know (or don't care to pay attention) that the integrated license is very different from the broad-field license. They believe (or pretend to believe) that a teacher with the integrated license can teach any science course in high school. This is happening all over Ohio as far as I can tell. It partly occurs because true licensed chemistry and physics teachers are hard to find because we don't graduate very many, but it also occurs because the school does not want to hire a physics teacher who only teaches physics and maybe physical science if they can get away with hiring one integrated-science teacher who supposedly "can teach everything."
[2] We have had a flock of biology teachers with legitimate single-field licenses in biology not get jobs because there is not a shortage of biology teachers in Ohio. So our single-field graduates in biology are coming back to us and telling us that some principals and superintendents have told them that if they would get the integrated license, the school will hire them as chemistry or physic (or both) because those schools are having difficulty finding teachers with single-field licenses in physics (or chemistry) or they don't want to hire a single-field physics teacher because they only offer one physics course. So these students apply for and get the integrated license (along with their single-field biology license) and then high schools hire them to teach any science. I need to use both hands to count how many of our biology graduates have gotten jobs to teach chemistry and/or physics in the last 5 years. It has been 1 to 3 teachers a year that get chemistry/physics jobs with their biology license and an integrated license endorsement. This is not legal in Ohio. Legally, they are not allowed to teach chemistry and physics because they don't have the broad-field license. But try telling that to the principals and superintendents. They are treating an integrated-science endorsement as the same thing as a broad-field license. And no one is enforcing the rules. Indeed, the high-school superintendents and principals do not want the rules enforced because they either have trouble finding properly licensed chemistry and physics teachers... or... they don't want properly licensed chemistry and physics teacher because the school is too small to offer more than one section each of chemistry and physics, and they don't want a fulltime teacher who only teaches two courses.
Michael D. Edmiston, PhD.
Professor of Chemistry and Physics
Chair, Division of Natural and Applied Sciences
Bluffton University
Bluffton, OH 45817
Office 419-358-3270
Cell 419-230-9657