The posting
Teacher Tutors is hiring part-time Reading Specialists to join our team on a flexible basis. We're seeking educators with strong literacy backgrounds to support students who are building foundational reading skills, working to catch up to grade level, or strengthening comprehension and fluency. This role is ideal for tutors trained in structured, evidence-based reading instruction who enjoy working one-on-one with students—including those who arrive discouraged after struggling with reading.
Our students range from early readers mastering the basics to older students closing persistent gaps. Sessions take place in students' homes, at the library, at our Livingston, NJ office, or online. Most of our clients prefer in-person tutoring, so we'd love tutors who are open to offering it. We match families to tutors based on your preferred travel radius—you tell us how far you're willing to drive, and we work within that.
Responsibilities
- Deliver one-on-one reading and literacy sessions tailored to each student's level, needs, and goals.
- Assess each student's reading profile—decoding, fluency, comprehension, vocabulary—and build an individualized plan that targets the right gaps in the right order.
- Plan lessons and prepare materials (phonics and phonological-awareness activities, decodable and leveled texts, fluency drills, vocabulary and comprehension exercises, and writing practice that reinforces reading).
- Build students' fluency across the core components of reading—phonological and phonemic awareness, phonics and decoding, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension—and their ability to apply these skills to increasingly complex texts with confidence.
- Track progress across sessions and adjust pacing, materials, and difficulty based on what's working.
- Submit a short session note after each tutoring session and flag concerns to our Director early.
- Communicate clearly and warmly with parents.
- Contribute to our team's shared practice: share what's working, ask questions, and help us keep raising the bar.
Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in education, literacy, reading, English, linguistics, or a closely related field. Master's or PhD candidates are welcome.
- Demonstrated mastery of reading instruction across the levels you'll support—from foundational/early literacy through grade-level comprehension and fluency—grounded in evidence-based, structured-literacy practice (the science of reading).
- Tutoring, teaching, or reading-intervention experience (formal or informal) with students at the relevant grade levels.
- Working familiarity with the relevant curriculum standards (e.g., the New Jersey Student Learning Standards for English Language Arts) and the areas where readers most often struggle, such as phonemic awareness, decoding multisyllabic words, reading fluency, and pulling meaning from complex text.
- Strong communication skills and the patience to work with students who may arrive frustrated, anxious, or discouraged about reading.
- Ability to plan individualized sessions and adapt in real time when a planned approach isn't landing, including teaching the same skill in multiple ways until it clicks.
- Availability for afternoon, evening, or weekend hours during the school year, with extra capacity around testing periods.
- Comfort with educational technology.
- Reliable transportation and a valid driver's license for in-home sessions.
Preferred
- Training or certification in a structured-literacy or multisensory reading program (e.g., Orton-Gillingham, Wilson Reading System, LETRS, or similar).
- A reading specialist certification or an M.Ed. in reading/literacy.
- Experience supporting students with dyslexia or other language-based learning differences.
- A track record of strong outcomes with striving readers (e.g., reading-level gains, assessment improvement).
- Familiarity with common reading assessments and benchmarking tools, so you can pinpoint where a student is and measure growth.
- Bilingual (Spanish, Mandarin, or other languages common in the communities we serve), or experience supporting multilingual learners.
Benefits
Compensation & employment status
- Pay range: $40 - $50/hour, based on degree and experience
- W-2 (default): Most part-time tutors join as W-2 employees. Teacher Tutors handles payroll, taxes, and provides liability coverage during sessions.
- 1099 (optional): Tutors who prefer 1099 contractor status are welcome, provided they carry their own professional liability insurance and operate through a registered LLC. Documentation will be requested during onboarding.
Coverage area
We serve families across northern New Jersey, with most in-home sessions concentrated in Essex, Morris, Union, and Bergen counties. When you join, you'll let us know your preferred travel radius from home, and we'll match you with students within that range.
