Instructional Guide - Alpha
$100,000 USD/year Pay is set based on global value, not the local market. Most roles = hourly rate x 40 hrs x 50 weeks 

United States
Semi-flexible schedule
In-person
full-time (40 hrs/week)
Long-term role

Instructional Guide - Alpha   $100,000 USD/year

Description

In-person | Springfield, MA or Houston, TX | Full-time W2 employee | $100,000 annual salary

What if the best way to change a public-school classroom isn't to change the teacher, but to work alongside them?

Alpha is bringing its learning model into public schools, and we need 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. 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. This is a partnership, not a handoff.

Alpha students spend about two hours each morning learning core academics through TimeBack, our 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. If you've managed a full public-school classroom, developed other teachers, and built learning experiences from scratch, this is a chance to put all three skills to work.

What you will be doing

  • Running the classroom alongside a district teacher: Co-own the day, student outcomes, and classroom culture while building a true working partnership with an experienced public-school educator.
  • Building a student-led culture: Use clear goals, live data, relationships, peer accountability, and individual and group incentives to help students take increasing ownership of their learning and behavior.
  • Designing project-based learning: Create original workshops that develop future-ready skills through hands-on projects, with clear objectives and ways to measure student mastery.
  • Coaching 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.
  • Acting 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.

What you will NOT be doing

  • Replacing the district teacher: You are joining their classroom as a partner. You will work side by side and build 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. You coach through the work itself.
  • 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.

Key responsibilities

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.

Candidate requirements

  • At least 3 years of experience as the primary teacher responsible for a full-size public-school classroom.
  • Experience leading, coaching, or developing other educators in a public-school setting, such as serving as an 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.
  • Demonstrated ability to build a classroom culture based on student ownership, clear expectations, accountability, and motivation.
  • Strong interpersonal judgment and the ability to influence experienced peers without relying on formal authority.
  • Willingness and ability to work in person at a participating public school in Springfield, Massachusetts, or Houston, Texas.

Nice to have

  • 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.

Meet a successful candidate

Watch Interview
Braden Pomerantz
Braden  |  Head Guide
United States

Braden knew he wanted to work with students. He just didn’t want the old version of the job. After years of coaching, debate, and searching ...

Meet Braden

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