Overview
Structured Literacy Specialist, Waypoint Academy – $100,000/year USD Jobs in Phoenix, AZ at Crossover
Title: Structured Literacy Specialist, Waypoint Academy – $100,000/year USD
Company: Crossover
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Required: Master's in reading instruction OR structured literacy certification (Orton-Gillingham, Wilson, IMSE, CERI, LETRS, Neuhaus, UFLI, or equivalent)
- On-site at Waypoint Academy, Dripping Springs (Austin area), TX. Relocation assistance available.
- $100,000 salary, paid weekly. Full health, dental, and vision coverage from day one.
- Nature-based school integrating structured academics with outdoor exploration
Most reading specialists work only with students who have already fallen behind. You've long believed that approach is backwards — that the Science of Reading should be accessible to every child, not reserved for those who triggered an intervention alert. If that conviction shapes your teaching, continue reading.
Waypoint Academy is a nature-based school where mornings focus on rigorous academics and afternoons feature archery, survival training, and exploration of the Texas Hill Country. Your responsibility is the morning component: delivering small-group structured literacy instruction that advances every K-2 student in phonics, decoding, fluency, and writing. You design the lessons. You analyze the data. You regroup and adjust in real time. The remainder of your day involves coaching students through adaptive learning applications, cultivating the relationships that drive every student to 100% completion of their app-based targets. No scripted programs. No pull-out intervention model. You are accountable for literacy outcomes across the entire cohort.
You're entering a small, developing school. This means you're constructing the literacy program from the ground up, not inheriting an established one. As enrollment expands, you'll determine how structured literacy scales across additional cohorts and grade levels. If you prefer a stable position with set routines, this is not the right fit. If you want to demonstrate that every child can learn to read more effectively when instruction is designed around their specific needs, this is your opportunity.
What You Will Be Doing
- Delivering small-group structured literacy instruction: systematic phonics, decoding, fluency, and early writing for all K-2 students, not only those identified for intervention
- Evaluating student performance data from adaptive applications and running records to reorganize groups and modify instruction between sessions
- Coaching students individually and in small groups through adaptive learning platforms, fostering relationships that ensure goal completion
- Creating your own lesson plans grounded in structured literacy principles, customized to each group's present level and progression rate
- Integrating occasional outdoor or experiential activities to strengthen literacy concepts when they authentically support learning
What You Won’t Be Doing
- Drafting IEPs or managing pull-out intervention schedules with classroom teachers. All students are your responsibility.
- Passively monitoring students on learning applications. You actively guide them toward goal completion, not observe them clicking through content.
- Working in a conventional classroom environment all day. Students are outdoors in the afternoons, so your literacy instruction blocks are concentrated and high-intensity.
- Grading large volumes of worksheets — adaptive platforms manage practice volume and progress monitoring, allowing you to concentrate on direct instruction.
Structured Literacy Specialist Key Responsibilities
Drive reading and writing advancement for all K-2 students through structured literacy instruction and adaptive learning platforms.
Basic Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in any field
- Master's degree in reading instruction OR structured literacy certification such as Orton-Gillingham, Wilson Reading System, IMSE, CERI, LETRS, Neuhaus, or UFLI. One of these credentials is mandatory, not optional.
- 2+ years of full-time K-2 structured reading instruction using systematic phonics in a school or clinical environment, within the past 5 years
- Experience creating your own reading lessons, and you can articulate what you teach and how without referencing a published curriculum
- Willing to work on-site at Waypoint Academy, Dripping Springs (Austin area), TX
- Willing to instruct all K-2 students (not exclusively struggling readers) and utilize AI-powered adaptive learning platforms daily
- Legally authorized to work in the U.S. without requiring visa sponsorship
Nice-to-have Requirements
- Experience with multiple structured literacy approaches (e.g., Orton-Gillingham and UFLI) with a clear justification for when each is appropriate
- Documented reading gains across an entire cohort, not only intervention groups. You can identify the metrics and the results.
- Familiarity with adaptive reading systems (Lexia, Amira, Reading Eggs, or comparable) and leveraging their data to inform instructional choices
- Experience in alternative school environments: micro-schools, outdoor education initiatives, Montessori, or similar settings
About Waypoint Academy
Nature-based school that blends rigorous academics with real-world challenges.
There is so much to cover for this exciting role, and space here is limited. Hit the Apply button if you found this interesting and want to learn more. We look forward to meeting you!
Working with us
This is a full-time (40 hours per week), long-term position. The position is immediately available and requires entering into an independent contractor agreement with Crossover as a Contractor of Record. The compensation level for this role is $50 USD/hour, which equates to $100,000 USD/year assuming 40 hours per week and 50 weeks per year. The payment period is weekly. Consult www.crossover.com/help-and-faqs for more details on this topic.
Crossover Job Code: LJ-5780-US-Phoenix-StructuredLite
