Learning Specialist, Alpha - $100,000/year USD

• $100,000 annual salary, paid out weekly, with health, dental, and vision coverage starting day one
• On-site 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 workweek, entirely in-classroom with students in grades K-2
  
  

You have years of experience in structured literacy. Orton-Gillingham, LETRS, Wilson, IMSE, or a Master's in reading. You can identify a student's miscue and pinpoint the exact phonemic skill to address. You can build a phonics lesson without relying on a scripted program. That's expected. That's not what sets you apart.

What sets you apart is that six-year-olds get excited when you arrive. At Alpha, this position is a Guide role first: a dynamic, engaging presence students want to work with. Your structured-literacy background opens the door; your capacity to captivate a K-2 classroom during a 20-minute workshop is what earns you the position. If "dynamic, engaging presence" doesn't fit you, this isn't the right opportunity.

Alpha has reimagined traditional schooling. Students work through academic content independently using AI-adaptive applications — no lectures, no textbooks, no district pacing calendars. Your position is the one area where a human specialist cannot be replaced. You create small-group reading workshops using live student performance data, and you facilitate motivation sessions designed to ensure 100% of students reach their weekly app targets through Alpha's motivational framework (school currency, leaderboards, age-appropriate gamification).

Your initial months focus on winning over the room. Workshops must be engaging, appropriately leveled, and demonstrably effective. Student satisfaction metrics and "love your Guide" feedback (target 90% ) track that directly. Once you've proven it, your responsibilities expand: interpreting AI-generated performance insights to refine upcoming instruction, communicating fluency progress and decoding growth to families, and influencing how Alpha's K-2 reading model develops alongside adaptive technology. As Alpha opens additional campuses, the systems you create become the blueprint for reading instruction across the organization.

Before you're hired, you'll submit a brief video where you tell a captivating 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 approaches (Orton-Gillingham, Wilson, LETRS, IMSE, or similar), informed by live student data
• Running daily motivation sessions designed to ensure 100% of students meet their weekly adaptive-app targets, leveraging Alpha's motivational framework (school currency, leaderboards, age-appropriate gamification)
• Conducting and evaluating running records, fluency assessments, and decoding probes to measure progress and refine instruction for upcoming sessions
• Analyzing AI-generated performance insights 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 daily
  
  

What You Won’t Be Doing

• Using a published reading curriculum, scripted program, or district-mandated pacing guide; you create your own lessons based on student data
• Delivering whole-class lectures; all instruction occurs in small, targeted groups while students complete core subjects through adaptive apps
• Serving as a reading consultant, coach for other educators, or district-level specialist; you work directly with kids in the classroom every day
• Operating a traditional classroom schedule — subject-by-subject lectures, homework checks, test preparation; your time is devoted to workshops, motivation sessions, and data-informed small groups
• Grading homework or producing report cards; student progress is captured in app data and your running records
  
  

Learning Specialist Key Responsibilities

Provide structured-literacy instruction that produces measurable acceleration in K-2 reading outcomes across phonics, fluency, and decoding.

Basic 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 discipline, 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 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 teach all K-2 students (not only those struggling with reading) and to incorporate AI and adaptive-learning technology into daily instruction
• Legally authorized to work in the U.S. or Puerto Rico without requiring visa sponsorship
• Bilingual English/Spanish proficiency required for the Dorado, Puerto Rico campus
  
  

Nice-to-have Requirements

• Practical experience with AI-powered or adaptive reading platforms (e.g., Amira, Lexia, i-Ready, Reading Plus) for instructional planning or analyzing student data
• Documented record of measurable reading outcomes (fluency gains in WCPM, accuracy improvements, decoding level progression) with specific numbers
• Experience in non-traditional or innovative educational settings (charter, micro-school, Montessori, hybrid)
• Experience performing, coaching youth sports, or otherwise engaging a K-2 audience outside traditional reading instruction
  
  

About Alpha

Want to join a learning rebellion that’s transforming the traditional classroom?

Alpha School is on a mission to reshape education with a bold approach that harnesses AI to accelerate learning and unleash student potential.

They don’t play by the old rules.

Alpha is creating a new paradigm where students master core academics in just two hours a day, freeing up time for hands-on, passion-driven learning that truly prepares them for the real world.

Alpha School is rewriting the rules of education.

Sounds too good to be true? It’s not.

There is so much to cover for this exciting role, and space here is limited. Hit the Apply button if you found this interesting and want to learn more. We look forward to meeting you!

Working with us

This is a full-time (40 hours per week), long-term position. The position is immediately available and requires entering into an independent contractor agreement with Crossover as a Contractor of Record. The compensation level for this role is $50 USD/hour, which equates to $100,000 USD/year assuming 40 hours per week and 50 weeks per year. The payment period is weekly. Consult www.crossover.com/help-and-faqs for more details on this topic.

Crossover Job Code: LJ-4849-US-Phoenix-LearningSpecia