North Carolina qualifies for the United States Department of Education Race to the Top with a funding of $400 million.   Thirty five states along with District of Columbia were seeking share of $3.4 billion provided by the Congress for educational reforms. North Carolina qualified with a funding of $400 million distributed over a period of four years.   College of Education Dean M. Jayne Fleener was closely involved in the initiative along with Dr. Gleen Kleiman, director of the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation.    Dean Fleener said “This is an initiative that will change the entire system. States selected are the states that can really make some impact to the current educational system.”   The process of proposal development was 18 month long and used the expertise of diverse group of North Carolinians, including representatives from various UNC campuses and 115 Local Educational Agencies.   Fleener said the Friday Institute and Dr. Gleen Kleiman worked closely with Governor Beverly Perdue and the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.   Race to the Top is not an event that happens frequently and North Carolina’s qualification could be a step towards revolutionary educational reforms, according to Fleener.   “This is once in a blue moon opportunity and a total of $400 million in educational reforms is unprecedented,” Fleener said.   According to Fleener, N.C. State’s contribution in being awarded the grant has been really important and N.C State was praised by State Board of Education Chairman William Harrison for the co-ordination with Governor Beverly Perdue’s office and NCDPI.   “Though the $400 million will be distributed over a period of 4 years, it is allotted to all the educational institutes across the state,” Fleener said.    It is still uncertain how much of the $400 million will be awarded to N.C State University.    According to Fleener, North Carolina’s proposal assessed the state’s current education reform efforts and presented a comprehensive plan for improving student outcomes through work in four areas: adopting internationally-benchmarked standards and assessments, developing data systems that measure success and improve instruction, supporting effective teachers and leaders and turning around low-performing schools.    “This was in the second round of qualification, two states qualified in the first round and 10 states including North Carolina qualified in this round,” said Fleener.   Fleener said she knew about how the Department of Education came to the conclusion of awarding $ 400 million to North Carolina.     Fleener said “The conclusion was drawn of the basis of population of the state and merit of the proposal though there are many more factors involved in the decision.”