README.md
In benjaminrobinson/LearnDC: LearnDC

LearnDC

An R package for pulling live data directly from LearnDC.org, a collaborative initiative led by the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) in partnership with other agencies and organizations that support young people in DC. The initiative builds on the knowledge of the DC education community to put reliable, trusted information about education at the public's fingertips. LearnDC is a one-stop source for information and resources about education that create opportunities for DC students in college, careers and life. LearnDC empowers students, parents, educators and communities with the knowledge they need – from information about caring for a young child to tools for engaging with our local schools.

Using the devtools package (install.packages("devtools")) and the function install_github(), download the package to your local computer by entering the following code in your instance of R or RStudio. Once devtools is installed run the following code to access the package:

 devtools::install_github("benjaminrobinson/LearnDC")
 library(LearnDC)

LearnDC uses two different types of functions: Get() functions and GetExhibits() functions. Get() functions grab the actual live data that is powering LearnDC's data visualizations on the site. GetExhibits() functions return the exhibit names that you must provide to the Get() functions given the levels arguments school,lea,sector, and state to retrieve the data.

For example, these are the exhibit names for the DC Report Card: graduation, dccas, attendance, naep_results, hqt_classes, staff_degree, mgp_scores, ell, special_ed, enrollment, suspensions, expulsions, enrollment_equity, accountability, amo_targets, mid_year_entry_and_withdrawal, and parcc.

So in order to return DC/State level adjusted cohort graduation rates, the function to use to discover the DC Report Card exhibit names using the function GetExhibits("state") and then, for example, use GetState("graduation") to retrieve the year-over-year subgroup level graduation rates.

If you get an error that looks like this: Image of Install Error please try restarting your instance of R or RStudio and run the package using library(LearnDC) again. If this does not work, try re-installing the package using devtools::install_github("benjaminrobinson/LearnDC") and then running library(LearnDC) again. If this error persists, email Benjamin Robinson (although my friends call me Ben), the creator of this package, at benj.robinson2@gmail.com or put in an Issue on this package's GitHub repository page.