| Overall Rating | Silver - expired |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 63.61 |
| Liaison | Greg Kozak |
| Submission Date | March 3, 2017 |
| Executive Letter | Download |
Northwestern University
AC-6: Sustainability Literacy Assessment
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
4.00 / 4.00 |
Christina
Cilento STARS Program Intern Office of Sustainability |
The percentage of students assessed for sustainability literacy (directly or by representative sample) and for whom a follow-up assessment is conducted:
The percentage of students assessed for sustainability literacy (directly or by representative sample) without a follow-up assessment:
A copy of the questions included in the sustainability literacy assessment(s):
The questions included in the sustainability literacy assessment(s) :
See attached file.
A brief description of how the assessment(s) were developed:
The Associated Student Government's Sustainability Committee, with the support of the sustainNU, created the survey and developed the plan to administer the survey in partnership with the Office of Student Affairs in 2015.
A brief description of how the assessment(s) were administered:
sustainNU and Associated Student Government (ASG) Sustainability Committee coordinated with Student Affairs to distribute the survey to a sample of 2,000 students, both undergraduates and graduates. Student Affairs sent an email to the sample with the link to the survey and a message from the ASG VP for Sustainability. The survey was first administered in November 2015 and remained open for about 2 weeks. Students were offered a chance at a $25 Chipotle gift card for completing the assessment. We have not yet conducted a follow-up assessment, however we are planning to restructure and readminister the survey annually each fall.
A brief summary of results from the assessment(s):
The Sustainability Literacy Assessment showed that the majority of our respondents considered themselves both moderately interested in, and moderately knowledgeable about, sustainability and environmental issues-- yet 69 percent had not looked for courses related to those topics. When asked what environmental issues most interested them, students indicated climate change and agriculture/food as their top choices. Out of 19 questions about general sustainability and environmental policy topics, the plurality of students got an 84 percent score, which is a positive sign that our student body is fairly environmentally literate. For future iterations of the survey, we would want to restructure our questions to be more pointed to information we could use, and also reduce the length of the survey to encourage more students to take it. We are also hoping to have students take a literacy assessment twice, when they are first-years and just before graduating, to measure the increase in sustainability literacy during the student's time at the University.
The website URL where information about the literacy assessment(s) is available:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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.