# Overview of the EdSurvey Package

The EdSurvey package is designed to help users analyze data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), including the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) datasets. Because of their scope and complexity, these datasets require special statistical methods to analyze. The EdSurvey package gives users functions to perform analyses that account for both complex sample survey designs and the use of plausible values.

The EdSurvey package also seamlessly takes advantage of the LaF package to read in data only when it is required for an analysis. Users with computers that have insufficient memory to read in the entire NAEP datasets can still do analyses without having to write special code to read in just the appropriate variables. This is all addressed directly in the EdSurvey package—behind the scenes and without additional work by the user.

## Resources

Several vignettes are available to assist in analyzing NCES data:

## Methodology Resources

Documents that describe the statistical methodology used in the EdSurvey package include the following:

## Software Requirements

Unless you already have R version 3.2.0 or later, install the latest R version—which is available online at https://cran.r-project.org/. Users also may want to install RStudio desktop, which has an interface that many find easier to follow. RStudio is available online at https://www.rstudio.com/products/rstudio/download/.

# Setting Up the Environment for Analyzing NCES Data

## Installing and Loading EdSurvey

Inside R, run the following command to install EdSurvey as well as its package dependencies:

install.packages("EdSurvey")

Once the package is successfully installed, EdSurvey can be loaded with the following command:

library(EdSurvey)