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

• $120,000 annual salary, paid weekly, with health, dental, and vision coverage starting day one
• Full-time on-site at one Alpha campus location: 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-hour work week, 100% classroom-based with K-2 students
  
  

Your structured-literacy certification — Orton-Gillingham, LETRS, Wilson, IMSE, or a Master's in reading instruction — has opened doors to every K-2 reading position you've pursued. In most of those roles, it also represented the limit: you delivered someone else's curriculum and documented results. At Alpha, the credential marks the entry point. If that difference resonates with you, continue reading.

Alpha has replaced conventional teaching methods. Students advance through academic content independently using AI-adaptive applications. There are no lectures, textbooks, or pacing calendars. Your position represents the irreplaceable human element. You create 20-minute small-group workshops based on real-time application data; these sessions are deliberately brief because targeted instruction outperforms duration. You also facilitate motivation sessions that guide 100% of your students toward their weekly app targets using 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 redesign the next day's workshop before leaving. That defines the expectation.

Families enrolling at these campuses have selected Alpha for measurable progress, not mere participation. Parents review weekly data on their child's reading development and they ask questions. You will field specific inquiries about individual student advancement, and vague reassurances will not suffice. You must reference the running record, identify the phonemic deficit, and describe your instructional response. This level of accountability should energize you, not exhaust you.

Your initial months focus on establishing credibility. Workshops must be engaging, appropriately leveled, and demonstrably effective; student satisfaction and "love your Guide" survey results (target 90% ) provide direct measurement. Once you prove effectiveness, your influence extends beyond your classroom: successful strategies with your students become templates for other Alpha campuses, and your diagnostic precision influences reading instruction as Alpha expands. Your contributions extend past your immediate environment.

Prior to hiring, you will record a brief video presenting an engaging story for young children, and you will spend one full day on campus working directly with K-2 students. Low energy with children disqualifies candidates regardless of credential strength. This is intentional. Apply today.

What You Will Be Doing

• Creating small-group K-2 reading workshops using live adaptive-app data, anchored in structured-literacy approaches (Orton-Gillingham, Wilson, LETRS, IMSE, or equivalent)
• Conducting daily motivation sessions that drive 100% of your students toward their weekly app targets using Alpha's motivational framework (school currency, leaderboards, age-appropriate gamification)
• Analyzing AI-generated performance data (fluency curves, decoding accuracy, comprehension signals) to modify instruction mid-day, not only during planning periods
• Conducting running records, fluency probes, and decoding assessments to generate gains visible in weekly campus data reviews
• Serving as the engaging, energetic adult your K-2 students anticipate seeing daily
  
  

What You Won’t Be Doing

• Implementing a published reading curriculum, scripted program, or district pacing guide; you create lessons from student data
• Delivering instruction to a full classroom; all teaching 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 work in the classroom with children every day
• Managing a traditional classroom schedule: subject-by-subject lectures, homework review, test prep. Your scheduled blocks consist of workshops, motivation sessions, and data-driven small groups
• Drafting IEPs, 504 plans, or formal diagnostic reports; student progress is documented in app data and your running records, not special-education paperwork
  
  

Literacy Specialist Key Responsibilities

Generate measurable K-2 reading improvement across phonics, fluency, and comprehension within a campus community where outcomes undergo weekly review.

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 field, plus 2 years of full-time K-2 structured reading instruction in a school or clinical environment within the last 5 years, utilizing systematic phonics or structured literacy
• Proven ability to develop 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: 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)
• Willingness to work with all K-2 students (not exclusively struggling readers) and incorporate AI and adaptive-learning tools into daily instruction as these tools develop
• Legally authorized to work in the U.S. without visa sponsorship
  
  

Nice-to-have Requirements

• Direct experience with AI-powered or adaptive reading platforms (e.g., Amira, Lexia, i-Ready, Reading Plus) for instructional planning or student data analysis
• Documented reading outcomes (fluency gains in WCPM, accuracy improvement, decoding level advancement) you can quantify
• Experience with diagnostic reading assessments (DRA, DIBELS, AIMSweb) for creating differentiated groups
• Experience in high-accountability educational settings (independent schools, elite charter networks, premium tutoring with families who monitor outcomes closely)
• Background in performance, youth sports coaching, or otherwise engaging a K-2 audience beyond the reading classroom
  
  

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-BeverlyH-LiteracySpecia