Early Elementary Teacher, Alpha - $120,000/year USD

Alpha School; Palo Alto (CA); On-site; USD 105,000 - 114,000; Full time

Job summary

Alpha School is seeking an Early Elementary Guide to join our on-site Palo Alto campus. You will spend 70% of your day guiding students through app-based core learning and 30% on targeted reading sessions, staying with them from launch to close.

You’ll lead morning routines, life-skills workshops, and reading interventions, monitor weekly app goals with gamification, and closely monitor progress with parents’ data reports.

Qualifications

• At least 3 years working directly with children ages 4-9
• At least 2 years teaching reading in K-3 within the last 5 years
• Completed structured-literacy training or master's in reading or literacy
• Legally authorized to work in the US without visa sponsorship

Responsibilities

• Coaching students through app-based core learning and guiding them to daily goals
• Running targeted structured-literacy sessions with small groups
• Leading morning launch and campus routines to keep students engaged
• Driving students toward weekly app goals with incentives and gamification
• Staying with students through lunch, recess, and reading interventions with a proactive plan

Skills

Reading interventions

Guided instruction

Student assessment

On-site collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree in any subject

Structured-literacy training or master's in reading

Tools

Amira

Lexia

i-Ready

Job description

"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, and focused reading interventions. You will know which one is faking fluency by Tuesday. 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. About 70% of your work is full-day Guide work. About 30% is targeted reading-specialist work. "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.

Interested in a different Alpha campus?

Current Openings

• CA - Malibu, Palo Alto, Piedmont, San Francisco, Santa Monica, and South Bay (Los Angeles)
• CT - Greenwich
• IL - Chicago
• MA - Boston
• 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 targeted 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, closing, and reading interventions, 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 targeted, short, and part of the school 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.

Early Elementary Teacher 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 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 70% of your day guiding students through app-based learning, workshops, and campus routines, and about 30% on targeted reading sessions
• Willing to work with all K-3 students, not only struggling readers
• Legally authorized to work in the US without visa sponsorship

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.

Education work that pays like it matters:

Alpha offers six-figure roles for people ready to help build a radically better school experience.

A culture built for builders:

Alpha is fast-moving, ambitious, and student focused. It’s for people who want to improve the system, not maintain it.

Alpha is where you can do the most meaningful work of your career.

There is so much to cover for this exciting role, and space here is limited.

Working with us

This is a full-time, W2 employee position with immediate access to benefits (https://support.crossover.com/article/7581-w2-benefits-u-s-paychex-paid-only). All roles are year-long positions. The compensation level for this role is $120,000 USD/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-PaloAlto-EarlyElementar.001