We are in the midst of an international movement that has emphasized the importance of and promoted science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and opportunities. Emergent concerns in contemporary research on STEM education include the relationship of prior achievement in secondary education to performance in college-level or pre-university STEM programs. The goal of this study was to examine the relationship of prior achievement (i.e., high school GPA) to performance in a pre-university physics program using data from 9877 students at one college institution from fall 2009 to winter 2015. Findings indicate that prior achievement (high school average) is closely linked to college performance (physics course performance and overall college R score). Yet, advanced physics courses continue to show high attrition rates, indicating that prior performance in secondary education may offer an initial selection threshold, but does not predict continuance in the physics program. Policies for boosting student success in physics program ought to address higher failure rates of introductory courses, but it will remain necessary to address high attrition rates among otherwise successful (i.e., high GPA) students.

中文翻译：

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检验中学教育的先前成就与大学绩效之间的联系：使用来自大学前物理课程的数据

我们正处于一项国际运动中，该运动强调并促进了科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）教育和机遇的重要性。当代对STEM教育的研究中出现的新问题包括中学教育的先前成就与大学水平或大学预科STEM计划的表现之间的关系。这项研究的目的是使用2009年秋季至2015年冬季一所大学的9877名学生的数据，研究大学预科课程中先前成绩（即高中GPA）与成绩之间的关系。研究结果表明，先前成绩（高中平均成绩）与大学成绩（物理课程成绩和大学整体R分数）紧密相关。但是，高级物理课程继续显示出高流失率，这表明中学教育的先验表现可能会提供一个初始选择阈值，但不能预测物理课程的继续学习。旨在提高物理课程学生成功率的政策应该解决入门课程中较高的失败率，但是仍然有必要解决其他方面成功的学生（即GPA高的学生）的高流失率。