Grade aliases and labels

[vrosenboom]

@ddorio @grahamimac

I've been having a difficult time with the grade aliases and figuring out how to call different grades. My natural instinct was to type grade=5 or grade=pre-k into the Stata package. But it doesn't seem particularly intuitive to type grade=grade-pk or grade=grade-99 to get totals or pre-k enrollment.

@ericatheresa suggested that it might be helpful to add the aliases to the frontend documentation. I was also wondering if there's a way to change the Stata package so that we don't have to type grade=grade-pk, but could just do grade=pk?

[vrosenboom]

Oh, and less important but the label for pre-k looks strangely spaced out. educationdata using "schools ccd enrollment", sub("year=2011 grade=grade-pk ncessch=010000201705")

[grahamimac]

This is definitely something I can simplify on my end. I'll add it to the to-do list.

[grahamimac]

Resolved in upcoming release, allowing for pk or grade-pk, and also adds validation to these required indicators (year, level_of_study, grade) and returns relevant error message.

[ericatheresa]

Just to clarify Victoria's request, can we do this for all the grades? Ie instead of typing grade=grade-1, just grade=1? etc?

[ericatheresa]

@grahamimac Matt just encountered this too; I imagine our beta testers will be confused by this as well since it's not documented anywhere that you need to type "grade=grade-1" or "grade=grade-99".

[grahamimac]

Hmmm... yes I see this error, I think it should be an easy fix. I'll look into it and try to resolve for the next release. Thanks Erica!

[ericatheresa]

Thanks! I think it will be intuitive for users to be able to type grade=1, grade=2, etc.

[grahamimac]

Ok, this is fixed in the development version and will be included in the upcoming release on Friday. Thanks!

[ericatheresa]

Can we add options to type "grade=-1" and "grade=0" for pre-k and kindergarten, respectively, since that's what's in the documentation at the moment?

[grahamimac]

This is actually much harder to implement on my end, for a number of reasons, so I'm going to have to push this to the next release. I think if we just went with -1 or 0, or just went with pk and k, it would make it a lot simpler. If you still want it, I can add it, but just not in tomorrow's release.

[ericatheresa]

Hm, ok. Will check with the team. Maybe the documentation can indicate that pk and k are the codes for pre-k and kindergarten?

[grahamimac]

That fix has already been made, per Matt's suggestion in another issue, so I definitely hear you there (I give the grade and level_of_study options in the documentation, and explain how to use 99 to streamline queries that only use totals). Maybe after the release tomorrow you can check it out and see what you think, and then we can revisit this and see if -1 and 0 are still needed?

[ericatheresa]

Awesome, thanks! Sounds like a plan!

[grahamimac]

This is now resolved and should be usable in the next release.