Early Elementary Teacher, Alpha

"The sheer amount of time I get back from not having to make daily lesson plans and grade papers is huge."

— Katie, Lead Guide, Alpha Denver

Alpha is hiring.

The hardest part of this job is not teaching. A six-year-old will be stuck in front of you, frustrated, and the right move is almost never to give them the answer.

You are with the same students all day. Morning launch, core learning on the apps, lunch, recess, life-skills workshops, closing. You will know which one is faking fluency by Tuesday. And when you find the gap, you do not wait for a referral or a committee. You pull two to four students, teach the fifteen-minute sequence you built for that gap, and watch it close.

The apps carry core instruction, so you are not writing lesson plans for twenty-four children at eleven  decide who needs you and what will move them, and you hold the daily goal without lowering it. "She's doing fine" is not an answer here; parents see weekly data and will ask you to name the gap.

Alpha is opening campuses across the country. The people who prove they can do this help hire and train the ones who come next, and write the curriculum standards other campuses follow. Some move into a lead role coaching that team, where the judgment behind the literacy work becomes the job.

Your resume will not decide this. Before an offer you record a short video telling a story to young children, then spend a day on campus. If what makes you good at this never fit on paper, that is the point.

This is a full-time, on-site role, five days a week, at an Alpha campus. We recruit nationally, so job boards may display this opportunity in nearby cities that do not have a campus.

• CA
  - Beverly Hills, La Jolla (San Diego), Malibu, Palo Alto, Piedmont, San Francisco, Santa Monica, and South Bay (Los Angeles)
• CT
  - Greenwich
• IL
  - Chicago
• MA
  - Boston
• NY
  - New York City
• WA
  - Seattle

• Your day centers on coaching students through app-based core learning: spotting who is stuck, asking the question that unblocks them, holding the daily goal.
• Running short structured-literacy sessions with two to four students. Diagnosing a phonics or decoding gap from running records and fluency probes, teaching a sequence you designed, and checking for transfer.
• Leading morning launch, life-skills workshops, and check-chart activities that keep six-year-olds moving.
• Driving students to their weekly app goals with school currency, leaderboards, and gamification.
• Staying with your students through lunch, recess, and closing, meeting frustration and refusal with a plan for that child.

• Writing lesson plans for a full class every night. Your planning is narrow and diagnostic.
• Running a pull-out caseload from a quiet intervention room. Reading groups are about a tenth of your week and happen inside the day.
• Delivering a published curriculum or scripted program with fidelity to someone else's sequence.
• Writing IEPs, 504 plans, chasing testing paperwork, or sitting on curriculum committees.
• Slipping away to a prep block while someone else covers your students. You are with them launch to closing.

Get every K-3 student to their daily learning goals, and close the reading gaps stopping them from getting there alone.

• 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…