The News: WILL has filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) on behalf of Kally Bishop, a highly skilled special education teacher at Thoreau Elementary, a part of the Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD). Kally was “surplussed” or involuntarily transferred over less qualified teachers based on the District’s race-laden scoring system. WILL’s complaint with the EEOC is the first step to taking legal action against the school district.
The Quotes: WILL Deputy Counsel, Luke Berg, stated, “MMSD’s hyper focus on race is both wrong and illegal. 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.”
WILL Client, Kally Bishop, stated, “I loved my job at Thoreau Elementary and was heartbroken to be forced out after so many years there. No teacher or student should ever be discriminated against based on their race.”
Our Client: Kally was a Cross-Categorical Teacher at Thoreau Elementary, a position that focuses on students with disabilities. Kally specifically worked with non-verbal students who struggle with basic communication skills. During her career, Kally has worked hard to develop techniques to help these students succeed and reach their highest potential. She loved her job at Thoreau and gained the trust and respect of both parents and her peers.
MMSD’s Scoring System Raises Serious Questions: In 2021, MMSD adopted a new scoring system for determining how educators are surplussed. Seniority was replaced by a weighted “rubric” of four scores, but the highest, by far, is so-called “culturally responsive practices.” This criterion is heavily race-based, openly encouraging teachers to prioritize “students of color” over other students to receive the highest score. When this new system was adopted, the superintendent and the school board told the public that it was intended and designed to protect “teachers of color.” And the circumstances surrounding Kally’s transfer are highly suspicious and suggest that this scoring system was applied, in practice, as a proxy for race discrimination.
Our Client’s Excellent Performance Reviews: In her most recent full review (in the summer of 2022), Kally received the highest two scores in every single category. The principal at the time described Kally’s “passion and care for children” as her “superhero quality.” He noted that “her work [wa]s consistently on point and highly beneficial of student growth and overall care.” She had developed “strong relationships,” both with parents, who “have absolute trust in her love and care of their children,” and with “community partners,” who “know Kally well and [ ] frequently connect on behalf of the children.” He concluded: “Kally is not just a critical ingredient in this work, she is often the lead chef in making sure all are working together.”
In another review from October 2024, under a section labeled “Equity Probes,” Kally was determined to be “super responsive to the students,” “us[ing] lots of praise and encouragement while balancing it with subtle redirects to help each student stay focused.”
Another review from December 2024 noted “strong evidence” “of the planning that went into this lesson.” And the “Equity” section noted that Kally provided “a myriad of supports” to help “the focus student [ ] access the learning,” and found that “[a]ll of this supports our vision in co-plan to co-serve.” None of her reviews have ever indicated, in any way, that her “practices” were not “culturally responsive.”
Nevertheless, she was given the second-lowest score on “culturally responsive practices.” When she asked for an explanation, she got no response. When she asked to see her rubric scores, she was told that the administration would not allow principals to share them.
Our Legal Claim: Title VII protects individuals, like Kally, from employment discrimination based on race or color. This includes both “discharg[ing] any individual” and “otherwise [ ] discriminat[ing] against any individual with respect to [her] compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual’s race [or] color.”
A New Approach Under Trump: Standards like “culturally responsive” or “cultural competence” may be a proxy for unlawful race discrimination, as recently noted in a memo from the United States Department of Justice. Attorney General Pam Bondi has made it clear that the Trump Administration will review and explore any proxies for racial discrimination.
Read More:
- Complaint, September 2025
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