Youth Development Coach
$120,000 USD/year Pay is set based on global value, not the local market. Most roles = hourly rate x 40 hrs x 50 weeks 

Multiple Locations, US
In-person
08:00 am to 05:00 pm, M-F
full-time (40 hrs/week)
Long-term role

Youth Development Coach   $120,000 USD/year

Description

The most difficult aspect of this position is not instruction. You will sit with a frustrated six-year-old, and the correct response will rarely be to provide the answer.

You remain with the same group of students throughout the entire day. Morning launch, app-based core learning, lunch, recess, life-skills workshops, closing. By Tuesday, you will identify which student is masking fluency gaps. When you locate that gap, you act immediately—no referral, no committee. You gather two to four students, deliver the fifteen-minute targeted sequence you designed for that specific gap, and observe as it closes.

Core instruction is delivered through the apps, so you will not be writing lesson plans for twenty-four children late into the night. Your role is to determine who needs direct support and what intervention will advance them, while maintaining the daily goal without compromise. "She's doing fine" is insufficient here; parents review weekly data and will expect you to identify the specific gap.

Alpha is expanding campuses nationwide. Those who demonstrate competency in this role go on to hire and train incoming staff, and establish the curriculum standards that guide other campuses. Some advance into lead coaching positions, where the pedagogical judgment behind literacy instruction becomes the primary responsibility.

Your resume alone will not determine the outcome. Prior to an offer, you will record a brief video storytelling for young children, then complete a full day on campus. If your strengths in this work have never translated well to paper, that is intentional.

This is a full-time, on-site position, five days per week, at an Alpha campus. Because we recruit nationally, job boards may list this opportunity in nearby cities where no campus currently exists.

Current openings:

  • CA - Beverly Hills, La Jolla (San Diego), Malibu, Palo Alto, Piedmont, San Francisco, and Santa Monica
  • CT - Greenwich
  • MA - Boston
  • NY - New York City
  • WA - Seattle

Interested in a different Alpha campus? Submit your application and indicate your preferred location, and we will direct you to the appropriate opening.

What you will be doing

  • Guiding students through app-based core learning: identifying who is stuck, asking the question that moves them forward, maintaining the daily goal.
  • Facilitating short structured-literacy sessions with two to four students. Identifying a phonics or decoding gap using running records and fluency probes, delivering a sequence you created, and verifying transfer.
  • Conducting morning launch, life-skills workshops, and check-chart activities that keep six-year-olds engaged.
  • Motivating students toward their weekly app goals using school currency, leaderboards, and gamification.
  • Remaining with your students from lunch through recess and closing, responding to frustration and refusal with an individualized plan for that child.

What you will NOT be doing

  • Creating nightly lesson plans for an entire class. Your planning is targeted and diagnostic.
  • Managing a pull-out caseload from a separate intervention room. Reading groups comprise approximately a tenth of your week and occur within the regular day.
  • Implementing a published curriculum or scripted program with strict fidelity to another's sequence.
  • Drafting IEPs, 504 plans, managing testing paperwork, or participating in curriculum committees.
  • Taking prep blocks while another staff member supervises your students. You remain with them from launch to closing.

Key responsibilities

Ensure every K-3 student reaches their daily learning goals, and eliminate the reading gaps that prevent them from achieving those goals independently.

Candidate 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 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

Nice to have

  • You have held a six-year-old's attention using only your energy and an engaging activity
  • You maintained engagement with tired children in an after-school reading program
  • Parents requested you by name
  • Experience with reading platforms (Amira, Lexia, i-Ready) or diagnostic assessments (DRA, DIBELS, AIMSweb)
  • You can describe a specific child whose decoding you improved and the method you used

Meet a successful candidate

Watch Interview
Holly Haygood
Holly  |  LL Guide and Reading Specialist
United States

Holly spent years helping students build skills that don’t always show up on a report card - confidence, planning, independence, and the bel...

Meet Holly

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