The instructional and assessment components within Chess Tutors, are provided by LearnStar, and were first developed in California and then expanded nationally.

A number of schools in southern California provided expert teachers in different subject and grade levels to design and create the content. The scope and sequence of the LearnStar Competitions follows the standards adopted by the California State Board of Education in 1997.

In addition, the mathematics content was developed using the Mathematics Framework for California Public Schools, Kindergarten through Grade Twelve as revised in 2000 with a balance between theoretical and applied approaches.

The language arts content was developed with an eye towards the Reading/Language Arts Framework for California Public Schools, Kindergarten through Grade Twelve, in 1999, addressing reading, writing, speaking, listening, and written and oral English-language conventions.

LearnStar content was also written, keeping in mined the standards and guidelines of the NCTM, the NCTE and the IRA. Finally, in keeping with the philosophy that all LearnStar content must align with daily classroom goals and objectives, an editor is provided to all instructors to modify existing content or create new modules to ensure 100% alignment to California State academic standards.