Physics, as a foundational science, has particular importance in predicting the postsecondary success of students who major in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. This quasiexperimental, observational study examined teacher-level and school-level predictors of student performance in physics, with a focus on isolated teachers. A New York State case study is useful since the teacher certification policy is largely determined at the state level in the U.S. The overall sample included New York State public schools that offered physics ($N=960$), physics teachers ($N=1584$), and student physics test takers ($N=47734$) in the academic year 2016–2017. Teacher-level variables included the content preparation and certification of physics teachers, physics course load, professional age (years of experience), whether the teacher was isolated, whether the teacher taught mathematics, and whether the teacher taught Advanced Placement Physics; and school-level variables including physics standardized test passing rates, school size, socioeconomic status, locale, and physics course taking ratio. Data were collected from a variety of publicly available sources that were verified by state education agencies. Results indicated a significant proportion (40%) of physics teachers were isolated, and their students tended to have weaker physics performance scores than students of nonisolated teachers. Compared to the nonisolated teachers, a larger percentage of isolated physics teachers were uncertified in physics and taught in urban and rural schools. There was no significant difference in professional age between isolated and nonisolated teachers, but urban teachers had less teaching experience than suburban and rural physics teachers. When analyzing the subset of isolated teachers ($n=449$), a multiple linear regression model indicated urban locale and school-level socioeconomic status were the main negative predictors of student physics performance, while rural physics locale and professional age were positive predictors of physics performance; the model explained 38% of the variance, a large effect. Teaching experience acted as a mediator of poverty and urban locale in predicting student physics performance with a small effect size. Implications related to equity considerations and physics education policy are discussed.

中文翻译：

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物理老师的隔离，情境特征和学生表现

物理作为一门基础科学，对于预测科学，技术，工程和数学专业的学生的中学后教育尤其重要。这项准实验性观察性研究检查了教师水平和学校水平的学生物理表现的预测指标，重点是孤立的教师。纽约州的案例研究非常有用，因为教师资格认证政策主要是由美国各州决定的。总体样本包括提供物理课程的纽约州公立学校（$ñ=960$），物理老师（$ñ=1584$），以及学生物理应试者（$ñ=47734$）在2016-2017学年。教师级别的变量包括物理教师的内容准备和认证，物理课程负荷，专业年龄（经验年限），是否与外界隔离，是否教过数学以及是否教过高等物理课程；以及学校级别的变量，包括物理标准化考试的通过率，学校规模，社会经济地位，地区和物理课程的录取率。数据是从各种可公开获得的来源收集的，并由州教育机构进行了验证。结果表明，很大一部分（40％）的物理老师是孤立的，他们的学生的物理成绩得分往往比非孤立的老师的弱。与非隔离老师相比，较大比例的孤立的物理教师未经物理认证，并在城乡学校任教。独立教师和非独立教师的职业年龄没有显着差异，但是城市教师的教学经验少于郊区和农村物理教师。分析孤立教师的子集时（$ñ=449$）的多元线性回归模型显示，城市地区和学校水平的社会经济地位是学生物理成绩的主要负面指标，而农村地区和专业年龄则是学生物理成绩的正面指标；该模型解释了38％的方差，影响很大。教学经验在预测学生的物理表现方面起到了调解贫困和城市环境的作用，效果很小。讨论了有关公平考虑和物理教育政策的含义。