Empty Promises, Endless Committees

Washington State’s Ethnic Studies Failure, Revisited for Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action

by Tracy Castro-Gill, Ph.D.

Black Lives Matter at School Week and Black History Month are meant to be moments of reflection, accountability, and recommitment. But in Washington State, they have become annual reminders of how little has changed despite years—decades—of research, advocacy, and community demands.

In January 2026, the Educational Opportunity Gap Oversight and Accountability Committee (EOGOAC) released its latest annual report. The committee has existed since 2008. Its charge is explicit: monitor progress toward closing opportunity gaps rooted in race, income, language, and disability. Eighteen years later, racial disparities in student outcomes persist, Black students remain disproportionately disciplined and underserved, and the retention of Black educators has worsened.

So the question must be asked plainly: what the fuck are they doing?

What the 2026 EOGOAC Report Actually Says

The 2026 EOGOAC Annual Report synthesizes findings from the 2025 Opportunity Gap Studies and reflects on progress since the original 2008 studies. The report identifies long-standing inequities in Washington’s K–12 system and organizes its analysis around familiar themes: representative staffing, culturally responsive curriculum, mental and behavioral health supports, and data disaggregation.

The committee’s primary recommendation is not new. It again calls on the Legislature to address inequities in the state’s school funding model, acknowledging that schools serving students most impacted by systemic racism are under-resourced. This recommendation echoes years of prior EOGOAC reports that are consistently strong on diagnosis, weak on enforcement, and devoid of urgency.

Where Ethnic Studies Shows Up—and Where It Doesn’t

Ethnic studies is mentioned, but only barely, and always as a recommendation, never as a mandate.

On page 15, under the section on culturally responsive curriculum, the report reaffirms two past recommendations:

• That ethnic studies be woven throughout all K–12 academic content, and
• That Washington support a high school graduation requirement inclusive of ethnic studies, either as a standalone course or integrated across disciplines.

Notably, the report does not name ethnic studies as essential infrastructure for racial justice in education. It does not acknowledge the extensive body of research demonstrating ethnic studies’ positive effects on student achievement, belonging, and engagement. Nor does it meaningfully address implementation barriers created by the state itself, particularly the actions of the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI).

Educator Preparation: Vague Language, No Accountability

The report gestures toward educator preparation, but again stops short of action.

Rather than calling for a dedicated ethnic studies endorsement or preservice pathway, the EOGOAC defers to existing “cultural competency” and CCDEI standards under the Professional Educator Standards Board (PESB). This framing is deeply inadequate.

Research conducted by Washington Ethnic Studies Now (WAESN) and others shows that educators are overwhelmingly unprepared to teach ethnic studies. Most teacher preparation programs do not require deep engagement with race, racism, Indigenous epistemologies, or decolonial frameworks. Without this preparation, educators—regardless of intent—are likely to commit curricular violence that harms students of color.

Ethnic studies is a discipline. Treating it as optional professional development rather than specialized preparation is not neutral. It is dangerous.

Black Lives Matter at School Has Been Clear Since 2016

This moment matters because none of this is new.

Since 2016, the Black Lives Matter at School movement has issued clear, consistent demands: ethnic studies, Black educator hiring and retention, and an end to racist school discipline practices. Ten years later, Washington State can point to committees, frameworks, and pilot programs, but not to systemic change.

The irony is cruel. As Black students continue to experience racialized harm in schools, Black educators are leaving the profession at disproportionate rates. Research demonstrates that ethnic studies is not only beneficial for students. It is protective for educators of color. Teaching ethnic studies affirms their cultural wealth, sustains their commitment to the profession, and offers refuge within institutions that otherwise dehumanize them.

Yet the EOGOAC report fails to name ethnic studies as a retention strategy. It fails to connect curriculum violence to educator attrition. And it fails to confront how state agencies actively undermine the very reforms they claim to support.

WAESN Has Been Doing the Work the State Refuses to Do

Washington Ethnic Studies Now has spent years doing what state agencies would not.

WAESN fought to ensure that ethnic studies in Washington would be understood as interdisciplinary, not siloed into a single high school elective. It required sustained lobbying, research dissemination, and direct confrontation with OSPI, which repeatedly attempted to dilute ethnic studies into “diversity content” and superficial inclusion.

WAESN also led the development of a K–12 ethnic studies endorsement pilot, directly addressing the educator preparation gap the EOGOAC continues to sidestep. The findings were unequivocal: even experienced educators felt unprepared to teach ethnic studies prior to targeted, discipline-specific training. And even after the pilot, they identified the need for ongoing support.

In other words, the problem is not a lack of knowledge. The problem is political will.

Eighteen Years of Oversight, Zero Accountability

The EOGOAC has existed since 2008. During that time:

• Racial opportunity gaps have persisted or widened.
• Black educator representation has declined.
• Communities have repeatedly named curriculum violence as a root cause of harm.

Yet the committee continues to produce reports that read more like archival records than instruments of accountability. Recommendations are recycled. Agencies are named gently, if at all. No consequences follow noncompliance.

Oversight without enforcement is not accountability.

This Moment Demands More Than Another Report

During Black Lives Matter at School Week and Black History Month, state leaders will issue statements about equity. Districts will host assemblies. Classrooms will display posters.

But symbolism without structural change is violence.

The communities have been clear for a decade. The research is settled. The question is no longer what needs to be done.

It is who the state is actually accountable to, and why it keeps choosing not to listen.