The most difficult aspect of this role is knowing when not to teach. You will see a six-year-old sitting in front of you, struggling, and the correct response is rarely to provide the answer directly.
Your day is spent entirely with the same group of students. You begin with morning launch, move through core learning on the digital platforms, continue through lunch and recess, guide life-skills workshops, and finish with closing. By the second day of the week, you will identify which student is masking their reading proficiency. Once you locate the learning gap, you do not wait for administrative procedures or team meetings. You gather two to four students, deliver the fifteen-minute targeted lesson you created for that specific gap, and observe as the gap closes.
Because the digital platforms handle core instruction, you are not drafting lesson plans for twenty-four students late into the night. Your decisions center on identifying who requires intervention and determining what will advance their progress, all while maintaining the daily learning target without compromise. "She's doing fine" does not suffice here; families receive weekly performance data and will expect you to identify the specific gap.
Alpha is expanding campuses nationwide. Educators who demonstrate success in this model go on to recruit and train incoming staff, and establish the curriculum standards that guide other campuses. Some transition into lead coaching roles, where the instructional judgment developed through literacy work becomes the primary function.
Your resume alone will not determine this outcome. Prior to receiving an offer, you will record a brief video in which you tell a story to young children, followed by a full day on campus. If the qualities that make you effective in this work have never translated well to paper, that is intentional.
This is a full-time, in-person position, five days per week, at an Alpha campus. We conduct national recruitment, so job listings may appear in nearby cities where a campus does not yet exist.
Current openings:
- CA - Beverly Hills, La Jolla (San Diego), Malibu, Palo Alto, Piedmont, San Francisco, and Santa Monica
- CT - Greenwich
- MA - Boston
- NY - New York City
- WA - Seattle
If you are interested in a different Alpha campus, submit your application with your preferred location indicated, and we will direct you to the appropriate opening.
What you will be doing
- Guiding students through app-based core learning: identifying who is struggling, posing the question that unlocks understanding, maintaining the daily learning target.
- Conducting brief structured-literacy sessions with two to four students. Identifying a phonics or decoding gap using running records and fluency probes, delivering a sequence you created, and verifying transfer of skills.
- Facilitating morning launch, life-skills workshops, and check-chart activities that sustain engagement with six-year-olds.
- Motivating students to reach their weekly app goals through school currency, leaderboards, and gamification.
- Remaining with your students throughout lunch, recess, and closing, responding to frustration and resistance with an individualized plan for that child.
What you will NOT be doing
- Creating lesson plans for an entire class each evening. Your planning is focused and diagnostic.
- Managing a pull-out caseload from a separate intervention space. Reading groups represent approximately a tenth of your week and occur within the regular day.
- Implementing a published curriculum or scripted program with fidelity to an external sequence.
- Completing IEPs, 504 plans, pursuing testing documentation, or participating in curriculum committees.
- Taking a preparation period while another staff member supervises your students. You remain with them from launch through closing.
Key Responsibilities
Ensure every K-3 student reaches their daily learning goals, and eliminate the reading gaps that prevent them from achieving those goals independently.
Candidate Requirements
- Willing to work on-site at a campus listed above, with relocation support
- At least 3 years working directly with children ages 4-9: teaching, coaching, tutoring, camps, youth programs, children's theater, or similar settings where kids showed up because of you
- At least 2 years of that experience teaching reading in grades K-3, within the last 5 years
- Completed structured-literacy training: LETRS, IMSE, Orton-Gillingham, Wilson Reading System, Fundations, UFLI, CERI, Neuhaus, SIPPS, Really Great Reading, or similar; or a master's in reading or literacy
- Bachelor's degree in any subject. A teaching certificate is not required
- Comfortable spending about 90% of your day guiding students through app-based learning, workshops, and campus routines, and 10% on reading sessions
- Willing to work with all K-3 students, not only struggling readers
- Legally authorized to work in the US without visa sponsorship
Nice to have
- You captured and held a six-year-old's attention using only your energy and an engaging activity
- You maintained consistent attendance from tired children in an after-school reading program
- Parents requested you by name
- Experience with reading platforms (Amira, Lexia, i-Ready) or diagnostic assessments (DRA, DIBELS, AIMSweb)
- You can describe a specific child whose decoding skills you improved and the method you used
This position is also known as:
- Reading Program Coordinator
- Learning Coach
- Student Success Coach
- Academic Coach
- Youth Development Coach
