CenturyLink New Mexico

READING INTERVENTION SUPPORTED BY QWEST FOUNDATION DONATION OF $5,000 TO BELEN CONSOLIDATED SCHOOLS

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., Jan. 9, 2008 – The CenturyLink Foundation today announced a $5,000 grant to the Belen Consolidated Schools to fund a reading intervention program called “I Station.”

I Station, short for Imagination Station, is an interactive Internet-based reading instruction and intervention program that teaches students to read fluently with comprehension. The I Station reading program provides data-driven individualized instruction, delivers continuous progress monitoring, and pin-points specific areas of need and intervention.

“Belen Consolidated Schools implemented the I Station reading intervention program in three of its seven elementary schools and is seeing great results,” said Leo Baca, CenturyLink director for government relations and a Belen High School graduate. “The District wants to expand the I Station program, and this is an effort that the CenturyLink Foundation supports since it helps students learn skills that are so important to a productive life. Literacy drives learning, and I’m glad that the CenturyLink Foundation is behind this effort.”

”The I Station program for Belen schools has been a positive support to student success in reading,” said Geneva Nixon, district curriculum director. “At the end of the Fall semester, one school had moved all of their students who were using the I Station from the ‘intensive’ reading level to ‘proficient.’ What the CenturyLink grant will allow us to do is help more students through this program.

“It is our belief that between the wonderful work that Reading First is doing and the good results we are seeing from I Station, we will close the achievement gap for our elementary students in reading. Thank you CenturyLink for your support,” Nixon said.

The I Station software teaches students to learn developmentally appropriate skills in reading. It is approved by Read First as an intervention program and is aligned to state and national standards.