Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 55.78
Liaison Jennifer McLaughlin
Submission Date Dec. 9, 2019
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

South Dakota State University
AC-6: Sustainability Literacy Assessment

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 4.00 / 4.00 Jennifer McLaughlin
Sustainability Intern
Facilities and Services
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Does the institution conduct an assessment of the sustainability literacy of its students (i.e. an assessment focused on student knowledge of sustainability topics and challenges)?:
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::
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 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:

For the STARS 2016 report, sustainability assessments from various other universities and colleges were analyzed, and common questions were used for our survey.The goal was to use questions that were previously used and shown to be statistically successful. Sustainability value questions that pertained directly to SDSU were also included. Special thanks goes to the following universities for allowing us to utilize their questions: University of Maryland, Western Michigan University, University of North Carolina, Appalachian State University, University of Colorado at Boulder, University of Missouri, Ohio State University and their Environmental & Social Sustainability Lab. For this years survey, the survey from STARS 2016 was used as a template, the Sustainability Specialist worked with a sociology professor and a staff member from SDSU Institutional Research to tweak and improve the survey. They particularly worked to improve question clarity and ensure the questions were not leading participants to the correct answer.

This survey was done in FY18 and FY19 another follow up survey will be in the next couple years.


A brief description of how a representative sample was reached (if applicable) and how the assessment(s) were administered :

The survey is sent via e-mail to a randomized 1/3 of the degree-seeking student population.


A brief summary of results from the literacy assessment(s), including a description of any measurable changes over time:

In general, survey respondents were knowledge of sustainability and found it important, particularly environmental sustainability. The knowledge base on economic & social sustainability was O.K. Participants also struggled on the effects of greenhouse gases and climate change. Compared to the survey in 2015, respondents seemed less knowledgeable on economic and social sustainability, and climate change. This change may be affected by the rewording of questions in the FY18 & FY19 survey.


The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives 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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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.