Before we can effectively apply specific interventions through professional development, it is important to determine what is occurring in our high school physics classrooms. This study investigated common professional practices in physics teaching among a representative sample group of schools and teachers from a diverse, geographically large population. An adaptation of a convergent parallel design was utilized in this study. Three separate parallel studies were conducted to answer the overarching research question, what is the nature of the secondary physics classroom in our high schools as they exist today? The results provide a unique picture of the variables impinging on physics teachers in their current classroom setting that converges from the particular viewpoints found in each of the parallel studies.