Early Elementary Teacher, Alpha - $100,000/year USD

Full-time, on-site position at an Alpha campus with a 40-hour work week across five days. Relocation assistance available.

About the Role

You recognize reading miscues instantly and can diagnose the underlying gap—whether it’s a vowel pattern, consonant blend, or decoding struggle. Your challenge isn’t just identifying the issue but responding effectively when a six-year-old is on the verge of tears. At Alpha, students complete their academic core in about two hours each morning using AI-adaptive applications, with no traditional instruction or printed curriculum. The rest of the day focuses on life-skills instruction.

As a Guide (not a traditional teacher), you ensure students engage with their work, stay motivated, and overcome obstacles the technology can’t address. You remain with the same group of students all day—core academics, workshops, lunch, recess, and progress-tracking sessions—gaining insights no standardized assessment can capture. Within two weeks, you’ll identify students masking reading difficulties and intervene immediately, without referrals or approvals. You’ll gather small groups for 15-minute targeted workshops, verify skill transfer, and return them to independent work.

Your preparation is diagnostic: identifying who needs support tomorrow and designing interventions that produce measurable progress. Families receive weekly performance data, so accountability is built into the role. Alpha is expanding nationwide, and top performers may advance into hiring, training, or leadership roles where diagnostic literacy instruction becomes the primary focus.

Responsibilities

• Deliver brief structured-literacy interventions (2–4 students) by identifying phonics/decoding deficits through running records and fluency assessments, designing targeted instructional sequences, and confirming skill transfer.
• Support students through app-based core instruction: troubleshoot stalls, ask problem-solving questions, and maintain daily performance expectations.
• Facilitate morning opening routines, life-skills instruction, and progress-tracking activities to sustain engagement for six-year-olds.
• Motivate students toward weekly goals using school currency systems, leaderboards, and age-appropriate gamification.
• Remain with students during lunch, recess, and dismissal, using individualized strategies to address resistance and frustration.
• Ensure every K–3 student meets daily learning targets and eliminates reading deficits preventing independent progress.

What You Won’t Be Doing

• Developing full-class lesson plans nightly (preparation is targeted and diagnostic).
• Managing a pull-out intervention caseload in a separate space (reading groups are ~10% of your week and occur within the regular schedule).
• Implementing a commercial program with strict adherence to an external scope and sequence.
• Drafting IEPs/504 plans, managing assessment documentation, or participating in curriculum committees.
• Transferring students to other staff during planning periods (you remain with them from opening to dismissal).

Requirements

• At least 3 years of direct experience with children ages 4–9 (teaching, coaching, tutoring, camps, youth programs, or similar).
• At least 2 years of K–3 reading instruction experience within the last 5 years.
• Completed structured-literacy training (LETRS, IMSE, Orton-Gillingham, Wilson, Fundations, UFLI, CERI, Neuhaus, SIPPS, Really Great Reading) or a master’s in reading/literacy.
• Bachelor’s degree in any subject (teaching certificate not required).
• Comfortable spending ~90% of your day guiding students through app-based learning, workshops, and routines, and ~10% on reading sessions.
• Willing to work with all K–3 students, not just struggling readers.
• Legally authorized to work in the U.S. without visa sponsorship.
• Willing to work on-site at one of the following campuses: AZ (Phoenix), OK (Oklahoma City, Tulsa), TX (Dallas, Fort Worth/Keller, Plano, The Woodlands), UT (Park City/Salt Lake City).

Nice-to-Have Qualifications

• Ability to maintain engagement with six-year-olds using only your presence and well-designed activities.
• Experience with exhausted children returning to your after-school/summer program.
• Familiarity with reading platforms (Amira, Lexia, i-Ready) or diagnostic assessments (DRA, DIBELS, AIMSweb).
• Can describe a specific child whose decoding skills you repaired and explain your methodology.
• Experience in non-traditional school models (charter, micro-school, Montessori, hybrid).

About Alpha

Alpha reimagines the school day around faster learning, stronger mentorship, and more time for real-world skills. The team includes Guides (teachers), operators, admissions experts, and curriculum leaders—all focused on building a radically better school experience. Roles offer six-figure compensation for those ready to drive meaningful impact, with a culture built for builders who want to improve the system, not maintain it.

Pay

$100,000/year salary, paid weekly.

Benefits

• Health, dental, and vision coverage from day one.

Schedule

40-hour work week across five days, on-site at a single Alpha campus.