Help Us Build a Different Kind of Literacy Intervention

Groves Learning Organization is seeking an outstanding literacy practitioner and adult coach to help launch a new high-dosage tutoring initiative in partnership with the Northside Achievement Zone (NAZ).

Together, Groves and NAZ are building a community-embedded literacy intervention for students in third grade and above who are significantly behind in reading. Scholars will work with the same tutor three times each week in small groups, using high-quality structured literacy materials aligned with the instruction taking place in their schools.

The High-Dosage Tutoring Coach and Site Lead will prepare, support, observe, and coach approximately ten tutors working across three NAZ partner sites. This person will serve as the tutors’ primary instructional coach and a visible Groves presence within the partnership.

The coach will model lessons, observe instruction, provide direct and practical feedback, review scholar progress, and help tutors respond effectively when students struggle or disengage. The coach will also work with Groves literacy staff, NAZ Scholar Success Coaches, school personnel, Beacon staff, and site leads so tutoring becomes part of a coordinated network of goals, relationships, and supports surrounding each scholar.

Primary Responsibilities

Prepare Tutors to Succeed

• Help design and lead an intensive September tutor-learning and readiness experience.
• Build tutors’ practical understanding of reading development and the science of reading.
• Train tutors to use Groves Method or UFLI instructional materials accurately and confidently.
• Prepare tutors to support older students who may have experienced repeated reading difficulty, frustration, or disengagement.
• Develop tutors’ skills in relationship-building, motivation, pacing, corrective feedback, and productive instructional routines.
• Help tutors understand their assigned schools, communities, and NAZ and Beacon teams.

Coach Instruction Where It Happens

• Maintain a consistent on-site presence during the 3:00–6:00 p.m. tutoring window.
• Rotate among partner sites according to a clear and predictable coaching schedule.
• Observe tutors regularly and provide timely, specific, actionable feedback.
• Model complete lessons and individual instructional routines.
• Lead brief tutor huddles, practice sessions, and debriefs.
• Identify common tutor-development needs and design targeted learning and practice.
• Provide additional support to tutors who need more intensive coaching.

Help Scholars Make Meaningful Reading Progress

• Review attendance, lesson completion, scholar-response notes, and planned instructional next steps.
• Help tutors use student responses to determine what requires review, repetition, or adjustment.
• Identify patterns of persistent difficulty, limited retention, slow progress, or disengagement that require additional attention.
• Consult with Groves literacy staff about instructional adjustments and more intensive support.
• Help tutors distinguish objective observation, professional judgment, and diagnosis.
• Ensure that instructional decisions preserve scholar dignity and strengthen confidence as well as reading ability.

Connect Tutoring to the Scholar’s Larger Support System

• Build strong working relationships with NAZ Scholar Success Coaches.
• Help connect tutoring goals and progress with each scholar’s broader Scholar Success Plan.
• Ensure useful attendance, engagement, and progress information reaches the right people.
• Coordinate with NAZ and Beacon staff responsible for attendance, transitions, family relationships, and daily operations.
• Participate in regular scholar-progress and program-implementation reviews.
• Help families experience tutoring as part of a coherent network of support—not another disconnected program.

Help Build and Improve the Model

• Help map and test the complete scholar and tutor experience before launch.
• Clarify responsibilities and communication pathways across Groves, NAZ, Beacon programs, and partner schools.
• Identify operational or instructional barriers before they become chronic problems.
• Help establish and maintain a simple, useful session-tracking process.
• Contribute field insight to the continued development of the tutoring model.
• Help determine tutor and site readiness before services begin.

Qualifications

• Strong knowledge of structured literacy and evidence-based reading instruction.
• Experience teaching or providing intervention to students with significant reading difficulty.
• Knowledge of phonemic awareness, phonics, decoding, encoding, word recognition, and fluency.
• Experience coaching, supervising, training, or developing adults.
• Ability to translate instructional observations into clear, respectful, useful feedback.
• Ability to use scholar-response and progress information to guide instructional decisions.
• Strong communication, organization, and collaborative problem-solving skills.
• Ability to work effectively across schools, nonprofit organizations, and community-based programs.
• Commitment to culturally responsive, relationship-centered practice.
• Availability during the required Monday–Friday service window.
• Reliable transportation among North Minneapolis partner sites.

Preferred

• Experience supporting older struggling readers.
• Experience with UFLI, Groves Method, or similar structured literacy materials.
• Reading intervention, special education, literacy coaching, or related professional experience.
• Experience launching or improving a tutoring or intervention program.
• Familiarity with North Minneapolis communities, schools, and organizations.
• Experience collaborating with family-support, care-coordination, or whole-child service models.

We recognize that powerful educators and coaches develop expertise through different combinations of professional preparation, community knowledge, and lived experience. Candidates should not assume they must match every preferred qualification to apply.

Who Will Thrive in This Role

• Believes every scholar can become a stronger reader without pretending the work is easy.
• Knows reading instruction well and can explain it without hiding behind jargon.
• Enjoys helping adults become more capable and confident.
• Can give direct feedback while preserving trust.
• Respects community knowledge as real expertise.
• Sees behavior as communication rather than merely noncompliance.
• Can protect instructional quality without becoming rigid.
• Notices patterns and problems early and prefers useful action to endless discussion.

Schedule and Compensation

This is a part-time, temporary 0.50 FTE position expected to average approximately 20 hours per week from mid-August 2026 through mid-June 2027.

• Required availability Monday through Friday from 3:00–6:00 p.m. during tutoring operations.
• Approximately five additional hours each week for planning, tutor development, documentation review, meetings, and coordination.
• Intensive tutor preparation and program-readiness work during September.
• A planned rotation among three NAZ partner sites.
• The position generally follows the partner-school calendar and is not scheduled during two weeks of winter break or one week of spring break.

Compensation is $37 per hour. The position is not eligible for employee benefits.

Why This Work Matters

Scholars who remain significantly behind in reading cannot wait for larger systems to improve around them. They need effective support now.

At the same time, tutoring cannot become another disconnected intervention that disappears when a grant ends or a provider leaves. It must strengthen the people, relationships, knowledge, and systems already surrounding the child.