Addressing tardiness with video games and chocolate chip waffles

A gaggle of elementary-age students gathered around a flat-screen television on a recent Friday morning as sounds of automated crowd noise on EA Sports’ College Football 25 and light trash talk filled a small office decorated with string lights.

School counselor Bryce Harris sat alongside the students, his blitzes and sweeps in the video game frustrating his pint-sized pupils.

“He can’t stop it,” said Harris, who played as the Ohio State Buckeyes. His opponents played as the Colorado University Buffaloes. 

Behind them, another group of students played Super Mario Kart on a Nintendo Switch.

It’s just after 8 a.m.  — approximately 45 minutes before the start of school at Helen Arnold Community Learning Center.

“We all get to play the game before we go to class,” said Israel Heard, a fourth grader. “So it makes us more ready to go, to learn.” 

Winners and losers aren’t important during these early morning gaming sessions, though Harris rarely lets the kids off easy. The Breakfast Club aims to incentivize students to be punctual.

The invitation-only program is for students who are chronically tardy. The intent is to intervene early. And it’s working.

At Helen Arnold CLC, chronic tardiness has decreased by about 40% over the past two years, according to data provided by Harris, a former University of Toledo offensive lineman who once laid pancake blocks for Super Bowl champion Kareem Hunt.

It gets tastier on Fridays. Harris teaches the kids how to make a hot breakfast. 

“Research shows that the simple act of arriving on time to school can positively shift a student’s entire academic journey,” said Laura DiCola, the GAR Foundation’s senior program officer for education. “We know that regular, on-time, daily attendance is critical to school success, yet far too many students are ‘chronically absent’ – defined by the state as missing at least 10% of instructional time, equivalent to 18 days of the school year.” 

Harris uses his college football career to relate to students while incentivizing them to behave and show up on time. He thinks he has about five years before his football knowledge isn’t relevant to students anymore, but until then, he’ll continue lighting them up during the early-morning gaming sessions. 

Heard said he wins sometimes on College Football 25, but it’s never without challenge from his peers or Harris. 

So why does Heard love the Breakfast Club? 

“Just know,” he said, “it’s a vibe.”  

Breakfast Club: More than 30 students participate

Attendance issues such as chronic absence and tardiness rose precipitously during the COVID-19 pandemic. National statistics compiled by the Brookings Institution show that chronic absenteeism nearly doubled from 15% to 28% during the pandemic, with levels in recent years remaining far above what they were pre-pandemic. 

In Akron, the Breakfast Club started two years ago out of frustration. And curiosity.

Harris was disappointed two students who lived walking distance from Helen Arnold CLC missed a significant number of days.

He wondered, what if he created a reason for them to form good habits?

Now, Harris has upwards of 30 students in the program, though not all of them show up every day. For many who do, it’s a fun and lighthearted way to start their day. 

After seeing early results with the first two students, Harris decided to expand the program. But he needed financial support, which the GAR Foundation provided after he gave a presentation on the nascent success. 

Putting the ‘breakfast’ in Breakfast Club

Of course, the exclusive Breakfast Club wouldn’t be complete without a warm breakfast for the students. 

“It’s good that he allows us to do this,” said Diana Lima, an 8-year-old in the club. “And I love Breakfast Club because I love the breakfast that he makes.”

The idea to help the students learn about cooking came after a Breakfast Club kid told Harris he made his family chicken alfredo one evening. Harris was surprised, and he wanted to fold some basic food safety and handling instructions into their weekly routines. 

“These kids are really at home making full meals for not only them but their siblings,” Harris said. “Let me teach them not to burn themselves and things like that.”

Friday morning breakfast started with those first two students when Harris bought  Eggo waffles out of his own pocket. 

“And then it started to go from there to, ‘How can I make this more intentional? How can I get more kids involved?’” Harris said. 

Now, with GAR Foundation money helping to fund Friday breakfast, Harris is able to cook with students. On a recent Friday, he helped them measure, pour and serve chocolate chip waffles. 

The video games and cooking are purposeful, given that most of these kids will leave Helen Arnold CLC and attend Buchtel CLC, which has e-sports and culinary arts College and Career Academies pathways. 

“I don’t even make parents feel like it’s a bad thing that they’re in Breakfast Club,” Harris said. “You know, even the invite is super festive and cool.” 

Early results show promise that can be easily replicated at other schools 

The success of the Breakfast Club program lies in its encouragement for punctuality. It incentivizes students to show up on time rather than punishing them for their tardiness. This approach falls into the district’s Multi-Tiered Systems of Support framework under Tier 2, meaning it’s a more targeted intervention for students identified as struggling. 

The data Harris has collected relies on a relatively small cohort of individual students over the past few years. But early returns that show attendance improvements are promising, leading Harris and DiCola to believe the program’s success is replicable at other schools in Akron. 

“Already well into its second year, the success of the Breakfast Club at Helen Arnold has sparked interest by other educators,” DiCola said. “Mr. Harris and colleagues have held workshops for other interested educators to share the model and unpack key strategies.” 

Most of the students at Helen Arnold CLC live within a 10-minute walk of the building, which Harris said makes chronic tardiness particularly egregious. Before winning the GAR Foundation grant, he parsed student data that showed some kids were missing weeks of school due to tardiness without ever missing a full day. 

Student attendance is based on instruction hours, which makes this impossible riddle a real problem for administrators. 

Harris thinks he found a way to get students to improve their punctuality and attendance. 

“Because it’s working so good, I can see this being something that’s easily replicable,” Harris said. “I have a few counselors that I’m meeting with soon …  about starting it at their school. But it’s starting to get out.”