Literacy Specialist, Alpha - $120,000/year USD

• $120,000/year salary, paid weekly, with health, dental, and vision coverage starting day one
• Full-time on-site at one Alpha campus: Beverly Hills, La Jolla (San Diego), Lake Forest (Orange County), Palo Alto, Piedmont, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Santa Monica, or South Bay (LA), CA; Greenwich, CT; Boca Raton or Miami Beach, FL; Chicago, IL; Boston, MA; Charlotte, NC; or New York City, NY (relocation assistance available)
• 40 hours per week, 100% direct classroom time with K-2 students
  
  

Your structured-literacy credential — whether Orton-Gillingham, LETRS, Wilson, IMSE, or a Master's in reading instruction — has opened the door to every K-2 reading position you've pursued. In most, it also defined the limit: you delivered someone else's curriculum and documented results. Here that credential marks the beginning. If that difference resonates with you, continue reading.

Alpha has redesigned traditional instruction from the ground up. Students advance through academic content independently using AI-adaptive applications. There are no lectures, textbooks, or pacing calendars. Your position represents the one area where a human specialist cannot be replaced. You will build 20-minute small-group workshops based on live app data; sessions are intentionally brief, because targeted instruction outperforms duration. You will also lead motivation sessions that ensure 100% of your students meet weekly app targets through Alpha's motivational framework (school currency, leaderboards, age-appropriate gamification). When you catch a student's miscue during a session, you identify the phonemic weakness and revise the next day's workshop before leaving campus. That is the expectation.

Families enrolling at these campuses have selected Alpha for results, not simply enrollment. Parents review weekly data on their child's reading development and they hold strong opinions. You will field specific questions about individual student progress, and vague responses like "they're doing fine" will not suffice. You must reference the running record, identify the phonemic deficit, and describe your corrective plan. This level of accountability should energize you, not burden you.

Your initial months focus on establishing credibility. Workshops must be engaging, appropriately leveled, and demonstrably effective; student satisfaction and "love your Guide" survey scores (target 90% ) provide direct feedback. As you succeed, your influence grows beyond your own classroom: strategies that work for your students become templates for other Alpha campuses, and your diagnostic precision informs how reading instruction scales across Alpha. The impact you create extends well beyond your immediate environment.

Before we extend an offer, you will submit a short video of yourself telling an engaging story for young children, and you will spend a full day on campus working directly with K-2 students. Low energy with children will disqualify you, regardless of credential strength. This is intentional. Apply today.

What You Will Be Doing

• Creating small-group K-2 reading workshops using real-time adaptive-app data, anchored in structured-literacy approaches (Orton-Gillingham, Wilson, LETRS, IMSE, or equivalent)
• Leading daily motivation sessions that achieve 100% weekly app goal completion across your students using Alpha's motivational system (school currency, leaderboards, age-appropriate gamification)
• Analyzing AI-generated performance metrics (fluency curves, decoding accuracy, comprehension indicators) to modify instruction throughout the day, not only during planning periods
• Conducting running records, fluency probes, and decoding assessments to generate measurable progress visible in weekly campus data reviews
• Serving as the energetic, relatable adult your K-2 students are excited to see every day
  
  

What You Won’t Be Doing

• Implementing a published reading curriculum, scripted lesson plan, or district-mandated pacing guide; you create instruction from student performance data
• Delivering whole-class lectures; all instruction occurs in targeted, small-group settings while students complete academic subjects through adaptive applications
• Serving as a reading consultant, instructional coach, or district-level specialist; you work directly with students in the classroom daily
• Managing a conventional classroom schedule: subject-by-subject lectures, homework checks, test preparation. Your time is allocated to workshops, motivation sessions, and data-informed small groups
• Drafting IEPs, 504 plans, or formal diagnostic documentation; student advancement is tracked through app data and your running records, not special-education paperwork
  
  

Literacy Specialist Key Responsibilities

Generate measurable reading improvement in K-2 students across phonics, fluency, and comprehension within a campus environment where outcomes are assessed weekly.

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 within the past 5 years, using systematic phonics or structured literacy
• Proven ability to independently design reading lessons and clearly articulate what you teach and how, without depending on a published program
• Availability to work in person full-time at one Alpha campus: Beverly Hills, La Jolla (San Diego), Lake Forest (Orange County), Palo Alto, Piedmont, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Santa Monica, or South Bay (LA), CA; Greenwich, CT; Boca Raton or Miami Beach, FL; Chicago, IL; Boston, MA; Charlotte, NC; or New York City, NY (relocation assistance available)
• Openness to working with all K-2 students (not exclusively struggling readers) and incorporating AI and adaptive-learning tools into daily practice as these tools develop
• Legal authorization to work in the U.S. without requiring visa sponsorship
  
  

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 student data interpretation
• Documented reading outcomes (fluency gains in WCPM, accuracy improvement, decoding level progression) you can quantify with specific numbers
• Familiarity with diagnostic reading assessments (DRA, DIBELS, AIMSweb) for creating differentiated instructional groups
• Experience in high-accountability educational settings (independent schools, elite charter networks, premium tutoring services with outcome-focused families)
• Background in performance, youth sports coaching, or other roles engaging K-2 audiences 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 $60 USD/hour, which equates to $120,000 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-5632-US-SantaBar-LiteracySpecia.003