University at Albany
AC-6: Sustainability Literacy Assessment

We used the Sustainability Literacy Assessment Test affliated with the UN's Higher Education Sustainability Initiative. The test randomly selects multiple choice questions that are designed to assess the student's knowledge related to sustainable development. The assessment questions are not made public but a description of the test, its origins and governance can be found at https://www.sulitest.org/en/index.html The mission of the initiative is: "to improve Sustainability Literacy worldwide by providing citizens and organizations with internationally recognized and locally relevant tools to engage learning and to collect meaningful indicators on the awareness of sustainability challenges and solutions. Sharing these indicators may allow researchers, educators and other relevant stakeholders to tailor pedagogical approaches and learning experiments to support Education for Sustainable Development."

The tool was developed by a French NGO and designed to be closely aligned with UN global goals. The tool has undergone a beta testing and two revisions to arrive at its current form. A Board of Directors and Regional Expert Committees ensure that the tool is updated and reflect current trends. Information on the organization of the tool can be found at: https://www.sulitest.org/en/the-organization.html

The test was administered as part of Environmental Economics (upperclassmen) and Introduction to Environmental Advocacy (freshman) classes. Students complete a pre-test given online at the start of the course. The same students then complete the same test at the end of the course. The test was given to the Environmental Economic students in the spring of 2016, 2017 and 2018. The test was given to the Environmental Advocacy students in the Fall of 2017 and the current freshman seminar class has completed the pre-test. A total of 180 students have been subject to this assessment since our last STARS report, with 160 students completing both the pre and post test.

The literacy test showed an improvement in student test scores for...... The overall average of correct answers pre and post test is listed below with the difference showing a statistically significance under a comparison of the means test. Course Date Pre-Test Post-Test Env Econ Spring 2016 48 51 Env Econ Spring 2017 54 51 Env Advocacy Fall 2017 60 67 Env Econ Spring 2018 62 60 Env Advocacy Fall 2018 43 won't take post test until December Two of the administrations experienced an increase in literacy while two experienced a decrease when comparing pre and post test scores. Note the test was changed during the Fall of 2016, so those scores were not counted as the students took two different versions of the test.