Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 76.93
Liaison Ezra Small
Submission Date March 6, 2020

STARS v2.2

University of Massachusetts Amherst
AC-6: Sustainability Literacy Assessment

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 4.00 / 4.00 Nathanael Schildbach
Marketing Manager
University Relations
"---" 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::
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:

Uploaded copy. Literacy questions are on pages 1-4.


A brief description of how the literacy assessment was developed and/or when it was adopted:

In Fall 2019, representatives from the School of Earth and Sustainability and University Relations collaborated with the Office of Academic Planning and Assessment to develop the survey in house after reviewing several surveys conducted by other institutions.
The survey employed the United Nations’ definition of sustainability (“meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”), and included 15-questions. The survey will be implemented every three years in order to assess whether the courses, information and trainings delivered to students are resulting in improved sustainability literacy as indicated by their score on this survey. The survey was only administered to undergraduates.


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

A random sample of 4981 students were invited to complete the online, confidential survey and 34.9% (n=1736) participated. Students for the sample were selected to reflect the student body make up in key demographic areas (male/female and college/school enrolled in).
The post assessment survey will provide longitudinal data on student performance of the quiz and will be administered next in Fall 2022.


A brief summary of results from the literacy assessment(s):

* Mean # of questions answered correctly = 7.6 (sd =3.2)
* 8.7% of students answered 12 or more questions correctly
* Mean # of correct answers was highest for College of Humanities and Fine Arts (8.2) and College of Natural Sciences (7.9) majors


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

Submitted item by item responses.


Submitted item by item responses.

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