(The Center Square) – The Wisconsin Institute of Law and Liberty filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission after a Madison elementary special education teacher was involuntarily transferred for what it claimed is race-based reasoning.
The Madison Metropolitan School District began a race-based scoring system it calls “culturally responsible practices” to prioritize “students of color” and added it to teacher evaluations when making decisions on teachers that would be transferred instead of seniority.
Kally Bishop was a special education teacher at Thoreau Elementary before the transfer. She worked with non-verbal students who struggle with basic communication skills.
“I loved my job at Thoreau Elementary and was heartbroken to be forced out after so many years there,” Bishop said in a statement. “No teacher or student should ever be discriminated against based on their race.”
Bishop received high scores in reviews and positive comments but received a low grade in “culturally responsive practices.”
Bishop asked for more detail on the grade when it occurred but received no response and then was denied access to the rubric scores that led to her grade.
“MMSD’s hyper focus on race is both wrong and illegal,” WILL Deputy Counsel Luke Berg said in a statement. “The unfortunate and entirely predictable result is the District losing one of its best teachers at the expense of its most vulnerable students. We hope that this case exposes how the District’s rubric is being applied.”
