The most difficult part of this role is not instruction. A frustrated six-year-old will sit before you, and the correct response is almost never to provide the answer directly.
You remain with the same students throughout the day. Morning opening, core work on the learning apps, lunch, recess, life-skills sessions, and closing. By Tuesday, you will identify which student is masking comprehension. When you locate the gap, you do not wait for administrative approval or team meetings. You work with two to four students, deliver the fifteen-minute sequence you designed for that specific gap, and observe it close.
The learning apps handle core instruction, so you are not drafting lesson plans for twenty-four children late at night. You determine who requires your intervention and what will advance them, and you maintain the daily objective without compromise. "She's doing fine" does not satisfy here; parents review weekly data and will expect you to identify the gap.
Alpha is launching campuses nationwide. Those who demonstrate competence in this role help recruit and train incoming staff, and establish the curriculum standards other campuses adopt. Some transition into a lead role coaching that team, where the judgment underlying the literacy work becomes the primary function.
Your resume will not determine this. Before an offer you submit a short video telling a story to young children, then complete a full day on campus. If what makes you effective at this has never fit on paper, that is intentional.
This is a full-time, on-site position, five days per week, at an Alpha campus. We recruit nationally, so job boards may list this opportunity in nearby cities that do not yet have a campus.
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
Interested in a different Alpha campus? Apply anyway and specify your preferred location, and we will direct you to the appropriate opening.
What you will be doing
- Guiding students through app-based core learning: identifying who is stuck, asking the question that moves them forward, maintaining the daily objective.
- Conducting short structured-literacy sessions with two to four students. Identifying a phonics or decoding gap from running records and fluency probes, delivering a sequence you created, and verifying transfer.
- Facilitating morning launch, life-skills workshops, and check-chart activities that keep six-year-olds engaged.
- Motivating students toward their weekly app goals using school currency, leaderboards, and gamification.
- Remaining with your students through lunch, recess, and closing, responding to frustration and refusal with a plan tailored to that child.
What you will NOT be doing
- Drafting lesson plans for a full class every night. Your planning is targeted and diagnostic.
- Managing a pull-out caseload from a separate intervention room. Reading groups represent about a tenth of your week and occur within the daily routine.
- Implementing a published curriculum or scripted program with adherence to another's sequence.
- Completing IEPs, 504 plans, managing testing paperwork, or participating in curriculum committees.
- Stepping away to a prep period while someone else supervises your students. You are with them from launch to closing.
Key Responsibilities
Ensure every K-3 student reaches their daily learning goals, and eliminate the reading gaps preventing them from achieving that 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 held a six-year-old's attention with nothing but your energy and an engaging activity
- You kept tired children coming back to an after-school reading program
- Parents asked for you by name
- Experience with reading platforms (Amira, Lexia, i-Ready) or diagnostic assessments (DRA, DIBELS, AIMSweb)
- You can name a child whose decoding you fixed and how
This position is also known as:
- Reading Program Coordinator
- Literacy Specialist
- Student Success Coach
- Academic Coach
- Youth Development Coach
