It All Starts With a Conversation: How FDA Builds Student Success

At Fairborn Digital Academy, we take our role as a school of choice very seriously, as such Fairborn Digital Academy has a unique enrollment process, specifically designed to ensure we start every relationship with every student on the correct path toward meeting their goals of graduation. From the beginning, every new, prospective student, and their parent(s)/guardian(s), meets with a member of the administrative team in a “get to know you” session. 

During this meeting, the administrator will explain how Fairborn Digital Academy works and what will be expected of the student. This is important because FDA does things differently than other schools. It’s important we are all on the same page, and everyone needs to understand what will be happening and why. 

In the other part of the meeting, the staff connects with the student more deeply, to learn more about why the student is choosing this path, what works for them, and what does not. 

As a school of choice, the student has options to enroll in many different schools. Knowing why they are choosing to leave their current school, and why they selected FDA are important to helping find the RIGHT pathway to success for the student. 

Many students over the years have said they don’t feel any of their teachers from their exiting school care about them. Without that basic relationship, they don’t feel comfortable going to them for help. At Fairborn Digital Academy, we prioritize ensuring that feeling never exists at our school.

By assigning no more than 30 students to each Accountability Coach, a more “elementary school classroom” feel is created, enabling the coach to have the time to get to know the student and their family. The more the staff is able to learn about the barriers keeping the student from being successful, the more the coach can help the student overcome them.

Building relationships takes time. One of the most important parts of the pre-enrollment process is asking the student about their interests and their hobbies. These questions help the administration to place the student with a coach who may be able to connect on these commonalities.

Just as each student is unique, so is the staff at FDA. If we are able to match a student who enjoys the outdoors with an Accountability Coach who also likes to go hiking, a natural connection can begin the relationship building process.

Sometimes, prospective students will also say they did not have success in a class because they did not like the teacher. FDA’s enrollment process attempts to avoid that by asking the student about teachers they DID like in the past. Were those teachers male or female? Were they firm with classroom management or did they allow students more leeway with their work? 

While it is important for students to learn how to get along with all types of authority figures, we know in the long run, people are more successful in environments where they are most comfortable. Therefore, Fairborn Digital Academy works hard to create as comfortable an environment as possible for each student.

Fairborn Digital Academy’s unique pre-enrollment process does take a little bit more time, but we believe it is time well spent. The up-front effort leads to long-term success through the process of getting to know each student, recognizing their barriers, and fostering an environment where the student feels comfortable enough to focus on their classwork and not the outside forces which blocked their previous efforts. 

Getting to know each student and building relationships is one of the keys to Fairborn Digital Academy’s and our students’ success.