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Parents call for D65 support for dyslexia Parents, students say curriculum is in need of change By AVIVA BECHKY
the daily northwestern @avivabechky
M., an Evanston/Skokie School District 65 parent, started seeing signs of dyslexia in her youngest child Peter in preschool. Peter struggled to identify and match sounds with letters, but his kindergarten teacher said he could catch up later. M., who asked to use her first initial and a pseudonym for her child due to privacy concerns, said she was looking for signs because Peter’s father had dyslexia, an unexpected difficulty learning to read. When Peter was in first grade, his teacher suggested to M. that she begin the process to get an Individualized Education Program for Peter. That year, Peter started receiving small group and reading specialist support. But throughout his education at Orrington Elementary School, M. said Peter — now 11 and at Haven Middle School — still wasn’t receiving the instruction he needed. “It was like a full time job for me to try and advocate for my child to get the services that he needs,” M. said. “And he still wasn’t given those services.” In District 65, some parents say the yearslong lack
of phonics-focused reading programs impeded their dyslexic children’s literacy and mental health — and they say a curriculum shift would benefit all students. Now, the district is searching for a new curriculum and training more teachers in evidence-based reading interventions. But some children have already been left behind.
Aligning curriculum and science Zafiro Papastratakos, a former District 65 parent, said her son struggled with reading from a young age. Despite his difficulties, she wasn’t aware the district’s curriculum was scientifically outdated until he was in third grade, when she encountered a reported podcast on systemic issues with reading education. “I heard what she was saying and I recognized what she was calling as inappropriate instruction,” Papastratakos said. “I recognized it in the ways my son was being taught to read.” Many schools use a threecueing method that encourages readers to use context clues to guess an unfamiliar word’s meaning. But developmental science Prof. Elizabeth Norton said prevailing science promotes phonicsbased instruction, where students learn to read by breaking words down into sounds and letters.
» See LITERACY, page 6
Illustration by Olivia Abeyta
Northwestern has started a number of programs to support students and faculty impacted by conflict situations following the Ukraine crisis, though some international students from other countries affected by war and violence said they do not receive the same support from the University.
Students say NU aid is inequitable Assistance to Ukraine differs from response to other countries in crisis By AVANI KALRA
daily senior staffer @avanidkalra
Iryna Rekrut will travel from Kyiv, Ukraine to Evanston in September to pursue an international human rights fellowship at the Pritzker School of Law. She was one of several applicants from Ukraine and other nations permitted to apply outside the regular application cycle due to instability in their home countries. “I’m really looking forward to making a lot of international connections and learning different people’s perspectives on similar issues,” Rekrut said. This opportunity is one of several initiatives Northwestern
is launching to aid students and scholars affected by violence or disaster. But as the University has sponsored a string of Ukraine-related panels and aid initiatives in the past few months, some students from countries like Lebanon, Syria and Palestine say they have not received similar support from NU.
University supports Ukrainian students In addition to an extended application process, the Buffett Institute for Global Affairs is funding living expenses for students unable to return home this summer and hosting virtual scholars from Ukraine. Rekrut said she is excited to
travel to the U.S. and learn more about human rights. “I want to learn what other people are facing. I really want to share Ukrainian cultures, Ukrainian heritage, to really get people to know what it is like from firsthand,” she added. Rekrut will live with Pritzker Director of Graduate and International Program Admissions Mary Beth Busby, who helped establish the initiative allowing Ukrainian students to apply outside the regular application cycle. Looking for more ways to help, Busby added she offered to host Rekrut on a whim. “It was a gut, almost a kneejerk reaction,” Busby said. “I felt like I wanted to do something. You’re donating a couple dollars
here and there, but really, there’s no tangible way to help. This seemed like an opportunity.” NU is also working to support students who remain in Ukraine. Buffett Institute Executive Director Annelise Riles said professors in the Bienen School of Music have reached out to classical music students in Ukraine to offer virtual coaching and advising to doctoral students who are unable to attend school. “Our faculty have just stepped up on their own without any financial support or really any organization and just done the right thing,” Riles said.
» See AID, page 10
ETHS senior stopped from walking at graduation After Nimkii Curley decorated his regalia, family members say ETHS’ policies indicate a need for change By ILANA AROUGHETI and JORJA SIEMONS
daily senior staffers @ilana_arougheti @jorjasiemons
Content warning: This story contains mentions of anti-Indigenous violence. Nimkii Curley was excited to walk at Evanston Township High School District 202’s graduation ceremony Sunday. While he stood in line to receive his diploma, an ETHS event coordinator and a security guard pulled him out of line. Each directed him to remove his graduation cap. Curley, who is Turtle Clan Ojibwe and Black Sheep Salt Clan Navajo, added an eagle feather to his cap, and traditional Ojibwe floral beadwork to his cap and stole. ETHS does not allow students to modify
Recycle Me
Madison Smith/Daily Senior Staffer
Recent ETHS graduate Nimkii Curley did not walk at graduation this Sunday after he was pulled out of line for adorning his cap and gown with an eagle feather and traditional Ojibwe floral beadwork.
their caps and gowns. Administrators said Curley would be allowed to walk if he wore an unmarked cap instead. Curley refused. His father Lawrence Curley, who is also Turtle
Clan Ojibwe and Black Sheep Salt Clan Navajo, attempted to intervene, but staff were unmoved. “I couldn’t just give up my eagle feather in the hands of a
stranger,” Nimkii Curley said. “I couldn’t give up my identity like that.” Nimkii Curley stayed in the bleachers with his family for about three quarters of the graduation ceremony, leaving when it became unbearable to watch. Nimkii Curley’s parent and SESP Prof. Megan Bang, who is Fish Clan Ojibwe, said Nimkii’s upcoming graduation was celebrated by the surrounding Native community as an act of deep generational significance. She said ETHS’ graduation caps rule did not hold space for cultural freedom. When Nimkii Curley was sent to the bleachers, his parents and siblings were gutted, Bang said, but were extremely proud of him for graduating and taking a stand of integrity and self-expression.“There are lots
of people saying it was the rules, you’ve got to follow the rules,” Bang said. “It doesn’t make any sense. And it’s not just for Native people… We have the right to have an eagle feather, period … It’s really important to our identities.” The beadwork on the cap was a gift from a mentor and elder, one of Nimkii Curley’s namesakes, Bang said. It included cedar, one of four sacred medicines in Ojibwe tradition. Nimkii Curley was also wearing a traditional Navajo necklace gifted to him by a community mentor and elder, as well as a floral sash made by his family. The eagle feather was particularly important, Bang said, as it’s emblematic of Ojibwe spiritual beliefs and is traditionally gifted to people stepping into a leadership role. “For us, him graduating and
walking and doing what he’s done is an act of leadership,” Bang said. “It’s actually an act of community healing and familial healing.” Bang said Nimkii Curley’s grandfather is a survivor of the boarding school system, as was his grandmother, who is now deceased. Beginning with the 1819 Civilization Fund Act, the U.S. enacted policies establishing boarding schools with the aim of forcibly assimilating Native children into American society. For more than 150 years, Native children underwent physical assault, verbal abuse, and forced labor in the schools. Nimkii Curley’s grandfather never completed high school, Bang said, and the generational impact of boarding school
» See CURLEY, page 10
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