The Kansas State Department of Education (KSDE) recognized 243 public school districts and eight private systems through the 2024 Kansans Can Star Recognition Program that has been in place since the 2019-20 school year.

Kansas Commissioner of Education Dr. Randy Watson announced the recipients of this year’s awards during the Kansas State Board of Education’s October meeting. The recipients will also be announced and celebrated at KSDE’s annual conference, Great Ideas in Education: Lighting the Path Forward, Oct. 23-25, in Wichita.

The program honors districts and systems for excelling in outcomes established around the vision for education in the state – Kansas leads the world in the success of each student.

The vision was announced in 2015 by the Kansas State Board of Education and KSDE. A new accreditation model, Kansas Education Systems Accreditation (KESA), was announced shortly after. KESA accredits at the system level to create systemic change among school buildings in a district. The second iteration of the accreditation system, KESA 2.0, is in full implementation as of the start of the 2024-25 school year.

The Kansans Can Star Recognition Program is designed to support the KESA process by providing a level of recognition that helps districts identify where they want to focus their improvement efforts.

The program recognizes district achievement in eight areas, which are broken into quantitative and qualitative measures. Districts must apply for recognition in the qualitative measures area.

District recognition in the quantitative measures area is automatically calculated by KSDE based on collected district data. No application is necessary. You can find more information on the Kansas Can Star Program, including a list of awards winners here.