January: Designs study
Designs for Change releases a study showing that 53 percent of Chicago's public school students fail to graduate from high school and that among those who do, two-thirds read below the 12th-grade level.

April: Drop-out report
The Chicago Panel on Public School Policy releases a study showing that in some schools, the dropout rate for the Class of '84 hit 67 percent.

July: Advisory councils
The state Legislature creates advisory local school improvement councils, giving them a voice in the spending of schools' discretionary money. Later, critics of the School Board accuse it of thwarting this local involvement.