This report focuses on the extent to which students who are academically far off track in fourth or eighth grade in Kentucky catch up by eighth or eleventh grade. We studied three recent cohorts of Kentucky students whose eighth-grade ACT Explore® scores were more than one standard deviation below the ACT Explore benchmark scores associated with being on track. We found that 5% or fewer of the students who were far off track in eighth grade attained the ACT College Readiness Benchmarks® by the spring of eleventh grade. We did a similar analysis for two cohorts of students beginning in fourth grade, using scores on the Kentucky Core Content Tests in reading, mathematics, and science in grade four and ACT Explore scores in the same subjects in grade eight, and found that catching-up rates ranged from 7% in mathematics to 12% in science. We also found that students from at-risk groups--those who are low-income, African American, Hispanic, English language learners, or in special education--have lower catching up rates than their more advantaged peers. These results are of special concern because a large percentage of students from those groups are far off track in fourth and eighth grade. These findings should underscore the importance of policies and practices that focus on getting students off to a good start in the early grades. These practices are especially important for disadvantaged students. Ongoing research should identify practices that help to accomplish this goal, and state and local policy should support efforts to disseminate and implement those practices. Appended are: (1) Narrowing of Scale Score Gaps in Grades 8-11; and (2) Results by Income, Ethnicity, and Gender.