Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 68.02
Liaison Beth Klein
Submission Date Feb. 25, 2019
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

State University of New York at Cortland
AC-6: Sustainability Literacy Assessment

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 2.00 / 4.00 Beth Klein
Campus Sustainability Coordinato
Early Childhood Education
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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::
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 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:
The literacy assessment was administered Spring 2018. Questions were chosen from and used with permission from the ASK assessment from Ohio State University. These 12 questions were included with a larger campus carbon footprint survey that was administered to the entire campus. The questions addressed economic, social, and environment elements of sustainability.

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

A brief summary of results from the literacy assessment(s), including a description of any measurable changes over time:
Respondents (N=606 to 528 depending on question) consisted about 40% employees and 60% students. Percentage of respondents that chose the correct answer are ilsted below for each question. Environment-Related Questions Question 1: 56%, Topic: pollution streams and rivers Question 2: 85.6%, Topic: Ozone Layer Question 3: 74.6%, Topic: Sustainable Forest Management Question 4: 49.8%, Topic: Living more sustainably Social Question 5: 77.4%, Topic: definition of sustainable development Question 6: 86.4%%, Topic: Difference between richest and poorest Americans Economic Question 7: 59%, Topic: why electricity prices are low in the US Question 8: 35.9%, Topic: definition of economic sustainability Economic/Environment Question 9: 79.3%, Topic: What country produces the most carbon dioxide Question 10: 28.9%, Topic: leading cause of Atlantic fish stock depletion Social/Economic Question 11: 65%, Topic: example of environmental justice Social/Environment Question 12: 43.1%, Topic: putting activities in order of environmental impact Overall results indicate we need to improve our education and outreach in the areas of environmental impact of actions and sustainable living strategies. As this was the first administration of a sustainability literacy assessment, we expect to conduct a follow-up assessment spring of 2021.

Optional Fields 

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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