How does the degree of inquiry-based laboratory instruction impact student performance and student perseverance in the laboratory portion of a first-semester general chemistry course? The implementation of a new first-semester general chemistry laboratory curriculum provided an opportunity to address this question. A modified version of Lederman's continuum of scientific inquiry rubric (Fay, Grove, Towns, & Bretz, 2007) was used to establish the degree of inquiry incorporated into each laboratory experiment in the old and new curricula. Laboratory report average final grades and individual laboratory report scores were used to measure student performance. A comparison of laboratory report completion between the two curricula was done to measure student perseverance. A final comparison sought to determine if any relationships exist between degree(s) of inquiry and student performance and perseverance. (Contains 6 tables and 1 figure.)