For big urban districts, it can be slippery work to catch and hold students who are falling off track at a point that derails too many graduations: the transition from 8th to 9th grade. This article reports that the Chicago school district is putting a suite of new data reports into the hands of those who teach and counsel its 30,000 freshmen this year to stem those losses. Together, the reports are intended as an early-warning system that can mobilize the necessary support to keep 9th graders on course to finish high school in four years. The data reports are one part of Chicago's focus on keeping students in school and making progress during the risky period from late 8th grade to the end of 9th grade. The district introduced an expanded portfolio of orientation, enrichment, and skills-building programs at students' future high schools last spring and summer, most for four to six weeks. It made a big push to get incoming freshmen into summer online credit-recovery courses, and launched "freshmen on-pace" to help them recover lost credits during lunch, after school, on Saturdays, or via the Internet.