The transition to high school is a crucial time in a student's academic career. This summary is presented as a caution to students, parents, teachers, administrators, and the public to warn of some of the hazards of the transition year (grade nine). In 1989-90, ninth-graders in the Austin (Texas) Independent School District had the lowest percentage of passing grades and were the more likely to lose eligibility for extracurricular activities because of failure to pass all subjects each 6 weeks. Enrollment in grade 9 was much higher than projected because of the high retention rate in this grade. In spite of this high enrollment, attendance by ninth-graders is lower than that of other grades and there is a high number of students involved in disciplinary incidents. Data show that ninth-graders do not perform as well as do students in other grades on the Texas Educational Assessment of Minimum Skills (TEAMS). In addition, the highest dropout rate occurs in grade 9. One student in four drops out before finishing high school. Parents and teachers must take steps to help ninth graders adjust to the new academic and social demands of high school. Eight bar graphs illustrate grade 9 performance data. (SLD)