The Waterloo Region District School Board says it’s made some strides in improving local high school graduation rates, but still has more work to do.

Provincial data shows that 79 per cent of WRDSB students end up graduating high school, slightly behind the provincial average of 83 per cent.

“We continue to look at the results in order to try and determine where it is that students are being challenged,” Elaine Ranney, a WRDSB superintendent of education, told CTV News.

“We’re breaking down the results grade-by-grade … in order to get a better handle on where we’re having challenges and what we have to do about that.”

According to the Ministry of Education, 20 per cent of students don’t earn a full allotment of credits in Grade 9.

The data is based on students who began secondary school in the 2009/10 school year.

Since then, Ranney said, more Grade 9 students have achieved a full course load’s worth of credits.

The numbers also do not include students who have left the school board, or special education studnets who are not working toward a diploma.