ORDER

TODD J. CAMPBELL, District Judge.

Pending before the Court are a Report and Recommendation of the Magistrate Judge (Docket No. 75), Plaintiff's Objections thereto (Docket No. 76), and Defendant's Response to Plaintiff's Objections (Docket No. 78). Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1), Fed. R. Civ. P. 72(b)(3) and Local Rule 72.03(b)(3), the Court has reviewed de novo the Report and Recommendation and the file.

The Court agrees with Plaintiff that the Magistrate Judge's standard of finding that a reasonable jury would conclude that Plaintiff's conduct was more serious than the four comparators' conduct is stated incorrectly1 and that expert testimony is not required to prove that comparators are "similarly-situated."2 Nonetheless, the Court finds that, even so, the four comparators were not "similarly-situated" because, among other things, Plaintiff was a probationary employee and at least three of the four others were not.3 See, e.g., Docket No. 58-4, ¶ 4 and Docket No. 69, ¶¶ 15-16.

Although the parties and the Magistrate Judge refer to the adverse employment action at issue as the termination of Plaintiff's employment, the employment action at issue was actually the failure to renew Plaintiff's contract, which is a different (but nonetheless still adverse) employment action.

The Objections of the Plaintiff are overruled, and the Report and Recommendation is adopted and approved. Accordingly, Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment (Docket No. 58) is GRANTED, and this action is DISMISSED. Any other pending Motions are denied as moot, and the Clerk is directed to close the file.

The jury trial set for January 27, 2015, and the pretrial conference set for January 16, 2015, are canceled. This Order shall constitute the final judgment in this case pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 58.

IT IS SO ORDERED.