- $100,000 annual salary, distributed weekly, with health, dental, and vision coverage starting day one
- Full-time on-site position at a single Alpha campus: Phoenix, AZ; Oklahoma City or Tulsa, OK; Nashville, TN; Austin, Fort Worth, Houston (South Houston or The Woodlands), or Plano, TX; Park City (Salt Lake City), UT; or Dorado, Puerto Rico (relocation assistance available)
- 40-hour work week, 100% classroom-based with grades K-2
You've dedicated years to structured literacy mastery. Orton-Gillingham, LETRS, Wilson, IMSE, or a Master's in reading instruction. You can identify a student's miscue and pinpoint the exact phonemic gap to address. You can build a phonics lesson from scratch, no scripted curriculum necessary. That's your baseline. It's not what sets you apart.
What sets you apart is that six-year-olds are excited when you enter the room. At Alpha, this position is a Guide role first: a dynamic, engaging presence children genuinely enjoy learning with. Your structured-literacy credentials open the door; your capacity to captivate a K-2 classroom for a 20-minute workshop is what secures the position. If "dynamic, engaging presence" doesn't describe you, this role isn't the right fit.
Alpha has redesigned traditional education. Students work through academic material independently on AI-adaptive platforms — no lectures, no textbooks, no pacing calendars. Your role represents the one area where a human expert cannot be replaced. You create small-group reading workshops using real-time student performance data, and you facilitate motivation sessions that push 100% of your students toward their weekly app targets using Alpha's motivational framework (school currency, leaderboards, age-appropriate gamification).
Your initial months focus on winning the room. Workshops must be engaging, appropriately leveled, and demonstrably effective. Student satisfaction metrics and "love your Guide" feedback surveys (target 90%+) measure this directly. Once you've proven yourself, your responsibilities expand: analyzing AI-generated performance data to refine upcoming instruction, communicating fluency improvements and decoding progress to parents, and influencing how Alpha's K-2 reading strategy develops alongside adaptive tools. As Alpha grows to additional campuses, what you create becomes the blueprint for reading instruction across the network.
Before we extend an offer, you'll submit a short video telling an engaging story for young children, and you'll complete a full day on campus working directly with K-2 students. Low energy with kids is disqualifying, regardless of credential strength. That's intentional. Apply today.
What you will be doing
- Creating and facilitating small-group K-2 reading workshops rooted in structured-literacy principles (Orton-Gillingham, Wilson, LETRS, IMSE, or equivalent), informed by actual student data
- Facilitating daily motivation sessions that ensure 100% of your students reach their weekly adaptive-app targets, leveraging Alpha's motivational framework (school currency, leaderboards, age-appropriate gamification)
- Conducting and evaluating running records, fluency probes, and decoding assessments to monitor progress and refine subsequent instruction
- Analyzing AI-generated performance data from Alpha's adaptive learning platforms to differentiate instruction in the moment, not only during planning
- Serving as the approachable, energetic adult your K-2 students are excited to see each day
What you will NOT be doing
- Implementing a published reading curriculum, scripted program, or district pacing calendar; you create your own lessons using student data
- Delivering lectures to a full classroom; all instruction occurs in small, targeted groups while students complete academic subjects through adaptive apps
- Serving as a reading consultant, teacher coach, or district-level specialist; you are in the classroom with students every day
- Managing a traditional classroom schedule — subject-by-subject lectures, homework correction, test preparation; your scheduled blocks consist of workshops, motivation sessions, and data-informed small groups instead
- Grading homework or issuing report cards; student progress is tracked through app data and your running records
Key Responsibilities
Provide structured-literacy instruction that produces measurable acceleration in K-2 reading outcomes across phonics, fluency, and decoding.
Candidate Requirements
- Structured-literacy certification (Orton-Gillingham, LETRS, Wilson Reading System, IMSE, CERI, Neuhaus, UFLI, or equivalent) OR a Master's degree in reading instruction
- Bachelor's degree in any field, plus 2+ years of full-time K-2 structured reading instruction in a school or clinical environment, using systematic phonics or structured literacy
- Proven ability to create your own reading lessons and clearly explain what you teach and how, without depending on a published program
- Willingness to work in person full-time at one Alpha campus: Phoenix, AZ; Oklahoma City or Tulsa, OK; Nashville, TN; Austin, Fort Worth, Houston (South Houston or The Woodlands), or Plano, TX; Park City (Salt Lake City), UT; or Dorado, Puerto Rico (relocation assistance available)
- Willingness to work with all K-2 students (not exclusively struggling readers) and to incorporate AI and adaptive-learning tools into daily instruction
- Legal authorization to work in the U.S. or Puerto Rico without visa sponsorship
- Bilingual English/Spanish required for the Dorado, Puerto Rico campus
Nice to have
- Practical experience with AI-powered or adaptive reading platforms (e.g., Amira, Lexia, i-Ready, Reading Plus) for instructional planning or student data analysis
- Documented record of measurable reading outcomes (fluency gains in WCPM, accuracy improvement, decoding level advancement) that you can quantify
- Experience in non-traditional or innovative educational models (charter, micro-school, Montessori, hybrid)
- Experience in performance, youth sports coaching, or otherwise engaging a K-2 audience outside the reading classroom
This position is also known as:
- Literacy Specialist
- Reading Specialist
- Reading Coach
- Reading Interventionist
- Instructional Coach
- Reading Tutor
- Learning Specialist
- Educational Technology Specialist
- Instructional Coordinator
- Literacy Coordinator
- Reading Program Coordinator
