Getting Started with tnschooldata • tnschooldata

Installation

Install from GitHub:

# install.packages("devtools")
devtools::install_github("almartin82/tnschooldata")

Quick Start

library(tnschooldata)
library(dplyr)

Fetch enrollment data

The main function is fetch_enr(). It downloads enrollment data from the Tennessee Department of Education for a given school year.

# Get 2024 data (2023-24 school year)
enr_2024 <- fetch_enr(2024)

# Check the structure
head(enr_2024)

Data structure

The default output is in “tidy” (long) format with these key columns:

end_year: School year end (e.g., 2024 for 2023-24)
type: “State”, “District”, or “Campus”
district_id: 4-digit district ID
campus_id: 8-digit campus ID (district + school)
district_name, campus_name: Names
grade_level: “TOTAL”, “K”, “01”-“12”, or aggregates like “K8”, “HS”
subgroup: “total_enrollment”, “white”, “black”, “hispanic”, etc.
n_students: Student count
pct: Percentage of total enrollment
is_state, is_district, is_campus: Boolean flags

Get state totals

enr_2024 %>%
  filter(is_state, subgroup == "total_enrollment", grade_level == "TOTAL") %>%
  select(end_year, type, n_students)

Get district totals

enr_2024 %>%
  filter(is_district, subgroup == "total_enrollment", grade_level == "TOTAL") %>%
  arrange(desc(n_students)) %>%
  head(10) %>%
  select(district_name, n_students)

Get demographics

enr_2024 %>%
  filter(is_state, grade_level == "TOTAL",
         subgroup %in% c("white", "black", "hispanic", "asian")) %>%
  select(subgroup, n_students, pct) %>%
  mutate(pct = round(pct * 100, 1))

Multiple years

Use fetch_enr_multi() to get data for multiple years:

enr_multi <- fetch_enr_multi(2019:2024)

# Track state enrollment over time
enr_multi %>%
  filter(is_state, subgroup == "total_enrollment", grade_level == "TOTAL") %>%
  select(end_year, n_students)

Wide format

Use tidy = FALSE for wide format with one row per entity:

enr_wide <- fetch_enr(2024, tidy = FALSE)

head(enr_wide)

Wide format includes columns like: - row_total: Total enrollment - white, black, hispanic, asian: Demographic counts - grade_k, grade_01, …, grade_12: Grade-level enrollment - econ_disadv, lep, special_ed: Special population counts

Available Years

Tennessee enrollment data is available from 1999-2024:

get_available_years()

1999-2011: Historical data from Annual Statistical Reports (district-level only)
2012-2024: Modern data from TDOE portal (includes school-level)

Caching

Data is automatically cached locally to speed up repeated requests:

# View cache status
cache_status()

# Force fresh download
enr_fresh <- fetch_enr(2024, use_cache = FALSE)

# Clear cache
clear_cache(2024, "tidy")

Examples

Find your district

enr_2024 %>%
  filter(is_district,
         subgroup == "total_enrollment",
         grade_level == "TOTAL",
         grepl("Knox", district_name))

Compare districts

target_districts <- c("0470", "0792", "0850")  # Knox, Davidson, Shelby

enr_2024 %>%
  filter(is_district,
         district_id %in% target_districts,
         subgroup == "total_enrollment",
         grade_level == "TOTAL") %>%
  select(district_name, n_students)

Track demographic changes

enr_multi <- fetch_enr_multi(c(2015, 2020, 2024))

enr_multi %>%
  filter(is_state, grade_level == "TOTAL", subgroup == "hispanic") %>%
  select(end_year, n_students, pct) %>%
  mutate(pct = round(pct * 100, 1))

Session Info

sessionInfo()