Reading Teacher, Alpha - $120,000/year USD

• $120,000 annual salary, distributed weekly, including health, dental, and vision coverage starting day one
• Full-time on-site position at an Alpha campus in 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 workweek, entirely classroom-based with K-2 students
  
  

Your structured-literacy certification — Orton-Gillingham, LETRS, Wilson, IMSE, or a Master's in reading instruction — has opened every K-2 reading position door you've knocked on. In most cases, it also defined the limit: you delivered someone else's curriculum and documented the results. At Alpha, that credential marks your entry point. If this difference resonates with you, continue reading.

Alpha has redesigned traditional instruction from the ground up. Students progress through academic content independently via AI-adaptive applications. No lectures, no textbooks, no prescribed pacing calendars. Your position represents the irreplaceable human element. You create 20-minute small-group workshops using real-time application data; sessions are intentionally brief because targeted instruction outperforms duration. You also facilitate motivation sessions designed to drive 100% of students toward their weekly app targets using Alpha's motivational framework (campus currency, leaderboards, age-appropriate gamification). You catch a phonemic error during a session, identify the underlying gap, and recalibrate tomorrow's workshop before the day ends. This is the expected standard.

Families who select these campuses prioritize measurable outcomes over simple enrollment. Parents review weekly data tracking their child's reading development, and they ask questions. You will field specific inquiries about individual student progress, and generic reassurances will not suffice. You must reference the running record, identify the phonemic weakness, and articulate 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 scores (target 90% ) provide direct measurement. Once you've proven your impact, your influence expands beyond your classroom: successful methods with your students become templates for other Alpha campuses, and your diagnostic precision influences reading instruction as Alpha scales. Your contributions extend well beyond your immediate environment.

Before an offer is extended, you will submit a brief video of yourself telling an engaging story for young children, and you will complete a full day on campus working directly with K-2 students. Low energy with children disqualifies candidates regardless of credential strength. This requirement is intentional. Apply today.

What You Will Be Doing

• Creating small-group K-2 reading workshops driven by live adaptive-app data, rooted in structured-literacy approaches (Orton-Gillingham, Wilson, LETRS, IMSE, or comparable methods)
• Leading daily motivation sessions that ensure 100% of your students meet their weekly app targets through Alpha's motivational system (campus currency, leaderboards, age-appropriate gamification)
• Analyzing AI-generated performance metrics (fluency trajectories, decoding precision, comprehension indicators) to modify instruction during the day, not solely during planning periods
• Conducting running records, fluency assessments, and decoding evaluations to generate gains visible during weekly campus data reviews
• Serving as the engaging, high-energy adult your K-2 students anticipate seeing daily
  
  

What You Won’t Be Doing

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

Reading Teacher Key Responsibilities

Generate quantifiable K-2 reading progress across phonics, fluency, and comprehension within a campus environment 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 discipline, plus 2 years of full-time K-2 structured reading instruction in a school or clinical environment within the past 5 years, utilizing systematic phonics or structured literacy
• Proven capacity to design original reading lessons and clearly explain your instructional content and methods 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 technologies into daily instruction as these tools develop
• Legal authorization to work in the U.S. without requiring visa sponsorship
  
  

Nice-to-have Requirements

• Direct experience with AI-driven or adaptive reading platforms (e.g., Amira, Lexia, i-Ready, Reading Plus) for instructional planning or student data interpretation
• Documented history of measurable reading outcomes (fluency gains in WCPM, accuracy improvements, decoding level progression) you can quantify
• Familiarity with diagnostic reading assessments (DRA, DIBELS, AIMSweb) for creating differentiated instructional groups
• Background in high-accountability educational settings (independent schools, high-performing charter networks, premium tutoring with outcome-focused families)
• Experience in performance, youth sports coaching, or other contexts requiring you to engage K-2 audiences beyond 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-ReadingTeacher.002