University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research (CCSR), November 2014. This brief is an excerpt from Allensworth, E.M., Gwynne, J.A., Moore, P., and de la Torre, M. (2014). Looking Forward to High School and College: Middle Grade Indicators of Readiness in Chicago Public School. University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research (CCSR). This brief highlights a few key findings that have implications for how high schools support their incoming ninth-grade students.