Mentor Teacher, Alpha - $100,000/year USD

About the role

Alpha is bringing its learning model into public schools and needs experienced public-school educators who know what it takes to lead a full classroom. You'll partner with a district-employed teacher to run the Alpha model together — a true partnership, not a handoff. You bring deep classroom experience, a different approach to student motivation and learning, and the ability to model new practices in real time. Your partner brings their own expertise, knowledge of their students, and understanding of their school.

Alpha students spend about two hours each morning learning core academics through TimeBack, a mastery-based adaptive learning model. That means you won't spend your day lecturing, grading worksheets, or writing math and reading lesson plans. Instead, you'll focus on the parts of teaching that technology can't replace: motivating students, building a classroom students take ownership of, designing project-based workshops, and developing future-ready skills.

You'll also have an impact beyond this year's students. You'll model Alpha's approach for your partner teacher, coach in the moment, share what works, and gradually step back as they build confidence using the model themselves. You won't formally train or evaluate them — your job is to earn trust and help another experienced educator succeed alongside you.

Responsibilities

• Co-own the day, student outcomes, and classroom culture while building a true working partnership with an experienced public-school educator.
• Build a student-led culture using clear goals, live data, relationships, peer accountability, and individual and group incentives to help students take increasing ownership of their learning and behavior.
• Design original project-based workshops that develop future-ready skills through hands-on projects, with clear objectives and ways to measure student mastery.
• Coach through action: model Alpha practices, give useful feedback in the moment, and help your partner teacher build the confidence and skill to lead more of the model over time.
• Act on student data every day: track whether students love school, learn at an accelerated pace, and build future-ready skills, then adjust your approach based on what the data shows.
• Deliver strong student outcomes in a full public-school classroom while helping a district teacher build the capability and confidence to run Alpha's model increasingly independently by the end of the school year.

What you won't be doing:

• Replacing the district teacher — you are joining their classroom as a partner, working side by side and building capability together.
• Lecturing and grading all day — adaptive learning software handles core academic instruction so you can focus on motivation, culture, coaching, and skill development.
• Managing through constant commands or punishment — you'll build systems that give students meaningful autonomy while using clear expectations, accountability, and positive incentives.
• Formally training or evaluating your partner teacher — Alpha's Learning & Development team owns formal training, and the district owns teacher evaluation.
• Working with a small, hand-picked group of students — you'll work with a full-size public-school class and demonstrate that this model can succeed at the scale public schools actually operate.

Requirements

• At least 3 years of experience as the primary teacher responsible for a public-school class of 20–30 students.
• A bachelor's degree in any subject and a teaching license from any state (a license expired no more than 5 years ago also qualifies).
• Experience leading, coaching, or developing other educators in a public-school setting (e.g., instructional coach, department chair, team lead, mentor/cooperating teacher for student teachers, or education consultant).
• Experience personally designing and delivering a project-based learning unit from the ground up, with clear objectives and assessments that check mastery during the unit and at its end.
• Demonstrated ability to build a classroom culture based on student ownership, clear expectations, accountability, and motivation, using student data to act when progress stalls.
• A record of high achievement in your own academic, athletic, or professional work.
• Strong interpersonal judgment and the ability to influence experienced peers without relying on formal authority, including earning trust in an unfamiliar school.
• Willingness and ability to work in person at a participating public school in Springfield, Massachusetts, or Houston, Texas, following its weekday contract hours and calendar, including teacher workdays. Relocation is welcome.
• Legal authorization to work in the United States without visa sponsorship.

Preferred qualifications

• Experience mentoring or supervising educators or student teachers.
• Experience introducing new instructional practices or programs within a public-school environment.
• Familiarity with mastery-based learning, adaptive learning technology, or current learning-science practices.

About Alpha

Alpha reimagines the school day around faster learning, stronger mentorship, and more time for students to build real-world skills. Roles with real student impact include teachers (guides), operators, admissions experts, school & curriculum leaders, and remote team members. Alpha offers six-figure roles for people ready to help build a radically better school experience, in a fast-moving, ambitious, student-focused culture built for builders who want to improve the system, not maintain it.

Pay

$100,000 USD per year, paid weekly. Full-time W2 employee position.

Schedule

In-person, full-time, year-long position following the participating public school's weekday contract hours and calendar, including teacher workdays. Locations: Springfield, MA or Houston, TX.

Benefits

Immediate access to benefits (details at Crossover benefits page).

Crossover Job Code: LJ-5853-US-Houston-MentorTeacher.003