Overall Rating Gold
Overall Score 72.32
Liaison Merry Rankin
Submission Date Aug. 29, 2022

STARS v2.2

Iowa State University
AC-6: Sustainability Literacy Assessment

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 2.00 / 4.00 Merry Rankin
ISU Director of Sustainability
Facilities Planning & Management
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Does the institution conduct an assessment of the sustainability literacy of its students?:
Yes

Which of the following best describes the literacy assessment? The assessment is administered to::
A subset of students or a sample that may not be representative of the predominant student body

Which of the following best describes the structure of the assessment? The assessment is administered as a::
Pre- and post-assessment to the same cohort or to representative samples in both a pre- and post-test

A copy of the questions included in the sustainability literacy assessment(s):
A list or sample of the questions included in the sustainability literacy assessment or the website URL where the assessment tool may be found:
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A brief description of how the literacy assessment was developed and/or when it was adopted:
A pre-/post-test assessment of sustainability literacy is administered through an Environmental Science course, required for the major. This pre/post-assessment is administered as a part of an ongoing assessment of learning and retention to guide course structure from year to year.

A brief description of how a representative sample was reached (if applicable) and how the assessment(s) were administered :
The assessment is administered to all students taking Environmental Science 201. This includes all first year Environmental Science majors, as well as a number of juniors and seniors taking the class as elective. As a result, all years of study and all colleges have representation. For pre-assessment, throughout the semester, all students receive a few literacy questions, through Top Hat surveying, as a part of each class for pre-assessment. At the end of the semester, a subset of survey questions survey is included on the final exam for post-assessment.

A brief summary of results from the literacy assessment(s):
Results from Fall 2021 pre and post-testing offered the following conclusions:
1. Pre-assessment averaged scores of 50%, as compared to post-assessment scores of 83%.
2. Areas students collectively struggle with involve those that call upon the students to justify their thinking with regards to prioritizing different environmental problems and solutions.
3. Shifting curriculum toward focusing on distinguishing between fact-based claims and value-based claims - and making the distinction concrete, assists student systems thinking and solutions development when addressing environmental problems and solutions.

Optional Fields 

Website URL where information about the sustainability literacy assessment is available:
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Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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