Wartburg College
AC-6: Sustainability Literacy Assessment

A member of the sustainability advisory committee, with sociology expertise, conducted research of existing assessment tools, ultimately settling on the Ohio State University & University of Maryland assessment. We adopted some questions and eliminate a few to make it applicable to our climate and environmental issues.

Using surveymonkey.com we asked students to complete the survey. They were incentivized with prizes like solar cell phone chargers. Students were notified through various emails and social media posts. The first assessment was conducted in December of 2013. In 2013 we received a response from 16.2% of our students. There was equal representation of grade status and gender.

The twenty-six survey questions addressed six topics of sustainability. The questions were divided into 6 subject groups; Natural Resources, Economy, Energy, Climate, Behavior, and Policy. The results showed that students are learning about sustainability through their education, but we have a lot of room to improve. The 2013/14 data analysis included a 16.2% student response rate, consistently spread throughout the student population. The cumulative average of student scores was 62.9%. First year students scored an average of 55.2%, second year students scored 59.4%, third year students averaged 65.5%, and fourth year students scored and average of 69.7%. The analysis demonstrated a steady and positive upward trends of student scores as they progress throughout their time at Wartburg College, with the overall increase of approximately 14.5 percentage points between first and fourth year students. Students scored the best in the Policy category (74.7% correct) and poorest in the Energy group (54.4%). The 2014/15 data analysis included a 11.7% student response rate, spread throughout the student population. The cumulative average of student scores was 67.8%, a 4.9% increase from last year, alluding to an increase in sustainability knowledge. First year students scored an average of 59.5%, second year students scored 64.5%, third year students averaged 70.9%, and fourth year students scored and average of 75.0%, maintaining the trend of an overall increase of approximately 15.4 percentage points between first and fourth year students. A measurement of change within a consistent group of students (i.e. the 2013 first year results compared to the 2014 second year results) showed an average of 5.0% increase in knowledge. The level of improvement increased with each class, as compared to the previous class. It is also notable that students demonstrated an increase of knowledge in the climate category, more than any other. The senior class of 2015 showed the greater amount of growth when compared to their answers the previous year. We have learned the end of term, during finals may yield a better response. We believe the timing of the assessment is the reason we received a lower response rate.