The official entity that owns and generates the source standards. The issuer is the authority who publishes (until now, human-readable) standards. In the case of K12 education, it may be a state’s department of education (DOE/SEA), a Local Education Agency (LEAs), or other organizations that publish K-12 and K-12 PD learning and competency standards.
The issuer (owner/author) can also be an industry association, other institutions (community colleges, etc.) or a company that offers professional development courses.
