How can flashcard markup identify a subject and school level?

Definition: An AlignmentObject describes how a learning resource aligns with a node in an educational framework. In Google's Education Q&A markup for a Quiz, educationalAlignment contains these objects, with alignmentType set to educationalSubject for a subject or educationalLevel for a target grade or educational standard.

Key facts

• Google's Education Q&A documentation, updated 8 September 2026, defines a Quiz as one or more flashcards usually about the same concept or subject.
• The same page lists educationalAlignment, educationalAlignment.alignmentType, and educationalAlignment.targetName as recommended Quiz properties.
• Google says to use the educationalSubject value for a field of study or domain, and the educationalLevel value for a target grade or educational standard.
• Its example names the subject Biology and the level Fifth grade in separate alignment objects.
• Schema.org describes AlignmentObject as an intangible item that aligns a learning resource with a node in an educational framework.
• Schema.org's educationalAlignment property expects an AlignmentObject and is used on CreativeWork and LearningResource.

How the alignment values work

The two labels are values of alignmentType, rather than separate top-level fields on the quiz. Google's documentation says to repeat alignmentType when a quiz needs both a field of study and a target grade or educational standard. Each AlignmentObject then carries the corresponding label in targetName.

The source example uses this JSON-LD shape:

{
  "@type": "Quiz",
  "educationalAlignment": [
    {
      "@type": "AlignmentObject",
      "alignmentType": "educationalSubject",
      "targetName": "Biology"
    },
    {
      "@type": "AlignmentObject",
      "alignmentType": "educationalLevel",
      "targetName": "Fifth grade"
    }
  ]
}

The subject object identifies the domain. The level object identifies the target grade or educational standard. The value in targetName is the human-readable name shown in Google's example.

What an AlignmentObject can describe

Schema.org defines AlignmentObject as an item that describes alignment between a learning resource and a node in an educational framework. Its alignmentType property is a category of alignment, with recommended values that include requires, textComplexity, readingLevel, and educationalSubject. Google's flashcard guidance adds educationalLevel for the target grade or educational standard in this feature.

The type also defines educationalFramework for the framework name, targetDescription for a description of the framework node, targetName for the node name, and targetUrl for the node URL. The educationalAlignment property is defined as an alignment to an established educational framework, expects AlignmentObject, and is available on CreativeWork and LearningResource.

What the flashcard page must contain

Google's technical guidelines place structured data on the most detailed leaf page and say not to add it to pages without questions. Every question must use Flashcard as the eduQuestionType value for eligibility for the education Q&A carousel. The questions should be immediately visible on the page, rather than held only in a data file or PDF. A page with one question followed by user-submitted answers uses QAPage markup according to the same guidance.

Related terms

• Structured data
• JSON-LD
• QAPage structured data

FAQ

What should targetName contain?

Use the name of the subject, grade, or educational standard that the alignment identifies. Google's example uses Biology for educationalSubject and Fifth grade for educationalLevel.

Are educationalSubject and educationalLevel properties?

They are values of alignmentType in Google's flashcard example. The educationalAlignment property contains the surrounding AlignmentObject entries.

Can one quiz carry both a subject and a school level?

Yes. Google says to repeat alignmentType for both kinds of alignment, using one object for the subject and another for the target grade or educational standard.

Sources

1. Google Search Central, "Education Q&A (Quiz, Question, and Answer) structured data", 8 September 2026
2. Schema.org, "AlignmentObject", 16 September 2026
3. Schema.org, "educationalAlignment", 16 September 2026

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