Standards & sources

LearnSpark aligns lessons to official curriculum standards wherever an openly-licensed source is available. We align by each standard's code — a factual identifier that is not subject to copyright — and, for the plain-language descriptions families see, we generally use wording authored by LearnSpark rather than reproducing a standards body's own text. Where we do rely on a source's material, that source is credited below as its licence requires.

One curriculum, different things published

Your country has one curriculum. What changes from subject to subject is how much of it the education ministry actually publishes as a numbered list that anyone else is allowed to point at.

Where a ministry publishes objectives you can cite, we reference them by the ministry's own codes. A code on your child's progress screen is the real one, and you can look it up on the ministry's own site. In the United States, for example, a maths step carries a Common Core code like 2.NBT.A.1, and in Texas a TEKS code like 111.4.b.2.A.

Where a ministry doesn't publish that kind of list for a subject — or publishes it in a form we're not permitted to reuse — we write the year-by-year progression ourselves, aligned to the same curriculum, and give it a LearnSpark code such as NZ-SCI-LW-L2-1. The subject still follows your curriculum; the numbering is ours because there isn't an official one to borrow.

Either way, the wording your family reads is LearnSpark's own. Nothing here is a ministry publication, and no ministry or standards body reviews, approves or endorses LearnSpark. Your child's progress screen says the same thing for every subject — “aligned to” their curriculum — and this page is where the subject-by-subject detail lives. The exact source for any single standard is also on the hover of that line in the app.

Which applies to your child's subject

Every subject we hold standards for, by country. “References official codes” means the numbering comes from the published source named; “LearnSpark progression” means we wrote the steps ourselves, aligned to that curriculum.

Catalogues grow. If a ministry publishes citable objectives for a subject we currently write ourselves, we move that subject across and the codes on your child's screen change to the official ones — the line on the progress screen stays the same either way.

Australian Curriculum (ACARA)

Australia — all learning areas, Foundation–Year 10 · licensed CC BY 4.0

Based on the Australian Curriculum. © Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) 2010 to present, unless otherwise indicated, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. The Australian Curriculum is regularly updated; refer to the ACARA website for the current version. ACARA does not endorse LearnSpark or any product that uses the Australian Curriculum, and makes no representations as to its quality or accuracy.

Common Core State Standards

United States — Mathematics and English Language Arts

Mathematics and English Language Arts standards are © the Common Core State Standards Initiative and are used under the Common Core public licence, which permits use in commercial products provided the following notice is retained:

© Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved.

United States — state standards

Per-state standards alignment (codes)

Where LearnSpark aligns to a US state's standards, the standard codes are sourced from published state education-agency frameworks (via the Learning Commons Knowledge Graph and 1EdTech). LearnSpark aligns to these standards by code and authors its own plain-language skill descriptions; it does not reproduce the standards bodies' statement text. Some states' standards (for example, science standards derived from the Next Generation Science Standards, and standards published under NonCommercial licences) are used for code-level alignment only.

National Curriculum in England

United Kingdom (England)

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: the National Curriculum in England, © Crown copyright, Department for Education.

LearnSpark learning progressions

New Zealand, India, Nepal, Liberia, Ontario (Canada), and skill descriptions throughout

Where an official, openly-licensed curriculum is not available for a country, lessons are anchored to LearnSpark's own year-level learning progressions rather than to an official curriculum. These progressions are authored by LearnSpark and are not presented as any government's official standards.

For Ontario, Canada, lessons align to the Ontario elementary curriculum framework, but the plain-language descriptions families see are authored by LearnSpark; it does not reproduce material published by the King's Printer for Ontario.

For Liberia, lessons align to the national curriculum of the Republic of Liberia across English, Mathematics, Science and Social Studies. The progression and every description are authored by LearnSpark; no material published by the Liberian Ministry of Education is reproduced, and the Ministry does not endorse LearnSpark.

Next Generation Science Standards

United States — Science

LearnSpark's science coverage references the performance-expectation codes of the Next Generation Science Standards; the descriptions and skill breakdowns families see are authored by LearnSpark. “Next Generation Science Standards” and the NGSS logo are registered trademarks of WestEd. Neither WestEd nor the lead states and partners that developed the Next Generation Science Standards were involved in the production of, and do not endorse, this product.

Health & physical education

United States

Health education coverage references the National Health Education Standards indicator codes, used with attribution: © 2022 National Consensus for School Health Education. Physical education coverage references SHAPE America's National Physical Education Standards by indicator number; the descriptions families see are authored by LearnSpark, and SHAPE America does not endorse LearnSpark.

The arts

United States

Arts coverage references the National Core Arts Standards: National Core Arts Standards © 2014 National Coalition for Core Arts Standards. Descriptions are authored by LearnSpark; the National Coalition for Core Arts Standards does not endorse LearnSpark.

Computer science & languages

United States

Computer-science coverage references the CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards by code (© Computer Science Teachers Association, licensed CC BY-NC-SA 4.0); all descriptors are LearnSpark's own. World-language coverage uses LearnSpark's own standards, informed by the organising principles of the ACTFL World-Readiness Standards; ACTFL's text is not reproduced and ACTFL does not endorse LearnSpark.

Kōwhiti Whakapae early learning

New Zealand — early learning (before Year 0)

Early-learning progressions for New Zealand are sourced from Kōwhiti Whakapae, Ministry of Education (New Zealand), used under CC BY 3.0 NZ. Material may have been reformatted for presentation within LearnSpark.

A note on standard codes

Standard codes (for example, “3.NF.A.3.a”) are factual identifiers within a classification system and are not subject to copyright. LearnSpark uses these codes to track how a child is progressing against their curriculum.

Questions about attribution or licensing? Contact support@learnspark.io.