Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 59.70
Liaison Tracey Coronado
Submission Date April 5, 2021

STARS v2.2

Missouri State University
AC-6: Sustainability Literacy Assessment

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 2.00 / 4.00 Doug Neidigh
Sustainability Coordinator
Environmental 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::
The entire (or predominate) student body, directly or by representative sample

Which of the following best describes the structure of the assessment? The assessment is administered as a::
Standalone evaluation without a follow-up assessment of the same cohort or representative samples

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:
---

A brief description of how the literacy assessment was developed and/or when it was adopted:
The Academics Subcommittee of the Sustainability Advisory Committee compiled a list of 12 questions. These 12 questions were developed using a previous list of 50 questions. The Subcommittee, made up of students, faculty, and staff, narrowed the list of questions down to the top 12 questions they felt most effectively gauged sustainability literacy, including its environmental, social and economic components.

A brief description of how a representative sample was reached (if applicable) and how the assessment(s) were administered :
The assessment was included as part of the University Exit Exam, which is open for the duration of each term for students who have fulfilled 102 credit hours and is a graduation requirement. The questions were first included in the Exit Exam for the Summer of 2020. Going forward, the questions will be included in the exit exams for Fall, Spring and Summer. MSU is currently working to administer the same questions to incoming Freshmen to be able to measure sustainability knowledge growth while at MSU.

The existence of the University Exit Exam allows for a very large student sample to be included, and it is used as a platform for acquiring data (such as the sustainability literacy assessment, library use, and the advising process) relevant to the university’s mission and goals that can be shared throughout the university community. It provides a large data pool and eliminates the need for extensive extrapolation from a small sample size that, while restricted to students with many credit hours, otherwise captures a broad cross-section of students.

We are currently working to have the same questions administered to all new students in so that we can have a pre and post evaluation for future students.

A brief summary of results from the literacy assessment(s):
Although we only have the Summer 2020 data to date, the results showed students graduating MSU have a basic awareness of key sustainability components. See attached survey results. However, more analysis needs to be done to evaluate results based on college, or major, to determine which MSU colleges are effectively including sustainability into curriculum, and which colleges may need improvement.

Optional Fields 

Website URL where information about the sustainability literacy assessment is available:
---

Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
---

The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.