Academic Coach, Alpha - $120,000/year USD

Crossover; Santa Monica (CA); On-site; USD 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health coverage

Life and disability insurance

401(k)

Paid time off

Parental leave

Relocation allowance

Job summary

Alpha is hiring an Academic Coach to guide K-3 students through app-based core learning, identify gaps, and drive daily progress toward reading goals. You will lead short literacy sessions for small groups, stay with students through lunch and routines, and use data to tailor instruction.

A structured-literacy background and on-site work are required. This full-time, on-site role offers relocation support and a benefits package including health coverage, 401(k), PTO, parental leave, and a

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in any subject and teaching certification not required
• Master's in reading or literacy or equivalent credential required or preferred
• Structured-literacy training LETRS/IMSE/Orton-Gillingham or similar or related master's in reading

Responsibilities

• Get every K-3 student to daily learning goals and close reading gaps
• Diagnose reading gaps using running records and fluency probes
• Lead short structured-literacy sessions with small groups
• Guide morning launch, life-skills workshops, and campus routines
• Drive students to weekly app goals with data-driven instruction

Education

Bachelor's degree in any subject

Master's in reading or literacy

Structured-literacy training or certificate

Job description

"All of my students came back in the top 1% for growth and achievement on their MAP scores."

— Sam DePalo, Lead Guide, Alpha Fort Worth Texas

Alpha is hiring.

The hardest part of this job is not coaching. 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 at night. You 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.

Current Openings

• CA - Beverly Hills, 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

What You Will Be Doing

• 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.

What You Won’t Be Doing

• 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.

Academic Coach Key Responsibilities

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

Basic Requirements

• 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 coaching 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 the US without visa sponsorship

Benefits and other compensation. Health coverage (medical, dental, vision), life and disability insurance, voluntary benefits, tax-advantaged FSA, HSA, and commuter accounts, and a 401(k). Paid time off and parental leave. A one-time relocation allowance.

Nice-to-have Requirements

• You held a six-year-old's attention with nothing but your energy and an engaging activity
• You kept tired children coming back to an after-school reading program
• Parents asked for you by name
• Experience with reading platforms (Amira, Lexia, i-Ready) or diagnostic assessments (DRA, DIBELS, AIMSweb)
• You can name a child whose decoding you fixed and how

Join the team building school around student growth

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:

Alpha hires teachers (guides), operators, admissions experts, school & curriculum leaders, and remote team members.