Strategic Learning Abilities as a Predictor of Academic Achievement.

The importance of learning and study strategies in fostering academic achievement has generated a demand for assessing these behaviors. The Learning and Study Strategies Inventory-High School version (LASSI-HS) is one of the most popular of these assessment devices. This study analyzed the second order latent structure of the inventory, using a sample of 1,645 students, and tested it through a confirmatory factor analytic model. The hypothesized model of the LASSI-HS with three correlated factors and unique factor loadings demonstrated a good fit to the data. The resulting model of the LASSI-HS was subsequently used in a more complex model of academic success with the addition of an indicator of verbal and mathematics achievement as measured by the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) results and high school grade point average (GPA). The resulting model also indicated a good fit to the data with the LASSI-HS having a direct effect on GPA as well as a mediating effect through PSAT verbal achievement. The factor structure of the LASSI-HS and model of academic achievement also demonstrated invariance with respect to grade level. (Contains 2 figures, 7 tables, and 18 references.) (Author/SLD) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document.