Prevents academic failure by assessing motivation, learning strategies and study habits for early intervention.
Kathy Chatham Stroud,Ph.D., and Cecil R. Reynolds, Ph.D.

• Child Form Age Range: 8-12 years
• Teen Form Age Range: 13-18 years
• Time: 20-30 minutes

Poor study skills, ineffective learning strategies and test anxiety all impede academic success. Often they go unrecognized until a student enters college, and is placed in a remedial program. The School Motivation and Learning Strategies Inventory (SMALSI) measures the skills related to academic success early in a student’s career, allowing weaknesses to be addressed proactively – rather than waiting for repeated academic failures.

Designed for both special and general education students, pre-referral intervention, and assessing students with learning disabilities, emotional disturbance, or ADHD, this new self-report inventory assesses 10 primary constructs associated with academic motivation, learning strategies, and study habits focusing on strengths and liabilities:

Strengths:

• Study Strategies
• Note-Taking/Listening Skills
• Reading/Comprehension Strategies
• Writing/Research Skills
• Test-Taking Strategies
• Organizational Techniques
• Time Management

Liabilities:

• Low Academic Motivation
• Test Anxiety
• Concentration/Attention Difficulties

The SMALSI is available in two forms.

1. The Child Form (147 items) is for students 8 through 12 years of age
2. The Teen Form (170 items) is for 13- to 18- year-olds

Both forms are written at a third-grade reading level, and use a 4-point response scale, ranging from “Never” to “Almost Always.” An Inconsistent Responding Index is included as a validity measure. Scored by hand or computer, the SMALSI provides multiple scores, rather than one overall score.

The SMALSI was standardized on a sample of 2,921 students – 1,821 aged 8-12 years (Child Form) and 1,100 aged 13 to 18 years (Teen Form) – most from public schools. The sample reflects the U.S. population in terms of gender, ethnicity, and parental education.

Audio CD
The SMALSI Audio CD allows poor readers, who are often at risk for academic failure, to complete the SMALSI by listening to test items and then responding.

Each SMALSI Child and Teen Test Kit includes 25 test forms, a set of Scoring Templates, 25 Profile Sheets, an Administration Manual, and an Audio CD.

The Comprehensive Kit includes everything in the Child and Teen Kits. The unlimited-use Computer Scoring CD (32701C) must be ordered separately, and provides an efficient and cost-effective way to screen large school populations.

The SMALSI Intervention Guide is a valuable instructional handbook.  Strategies for Academic Success shows clinicians and educators how to identify students who are struggling to learn, through ineffective study and learning strategies.  Once these students have been identified this manual shows how to create interventions that enhance study skills, writing, reading comprehension, note taking, listening, time management, organization, test taking, test anxiety, attention, concentration, and motivation with reproducible handouts and templates to create treatment and educational plans.

Computer Scoring compatible with Windows.