Nonetheless, some felt the urgent need to switch to the block system as soon as possible.
The school format was to be changed as soon as possible, even if soon didn't mean ready. In the rush to get the system changed and working at the High School, some students couldn't receive finalized classes until almost three weeks of the first term had passed. And with each term being only half as many days as last year, that's like missing one and a half months of class! I don't think the students caught in that predicament received higher quality education than they would have had the system remained the same.
To understand the specific differences between the block schedule and seven-period schedule, let's go over the stats. This year at the High School, students still go to class from 8:25 to 3:18. But as you know, there are only four periods in the block system versus last year's seven. Each period this year averages out to be 85 minutes while last it turned out to be about 49 minutes. Also, the block schedule has 45 days per term. Comparably, the seven-period schedule has 90 days per semester. So, there's exactly half as many days per term this year compared to last. But, there aren't exactly twice as many minutes this year compared to last. In fact, there are 585 minutes less per term under the block schedule compared to the seven-period schedule. Under the seven-period format, that's twelve less days per semester. That's over one month the entire school year! The fact that teachers are supposed to allow some sort of break in the middle of class (since most people do not have an attention span of 85 minutes) isn't even taken into consideration. So where did all the time go? Well, it didn't help that the school doubled the amount of time between classes. But the main problem is that a maximum of sixteen credits are possible this year, while last year only fourteen were available. A credit is basically defined as a term or semester ("term" as in the block schedule format, and "semester" as in the seven-period format).