Catholic high school graduation rates across Lambton-Kent exceed the provincial average while public grad rates fall just below.
However, Mark Sherman, the superintendent of education at the Lambton Kent District School Board, says his graduation rates have jumped by six percentage points over the last five years to 81%.
Mark Sherman says the public board has done it through a lot of specialized programs and co-op opportunities.
"You need to have flexible programming for the modern student. So, the changes we've made to be able to get students into co-op placements, to allow them to do courses online, we have some specialized co-op programs, which are very important," says Sherman.
Superintendent of Education at the St. Clair Catholic District School Board, Scott Johnson, says his students are graduating at a rate of 91.5%.
Conseil scolaire catholique Providence came first in the province with a grad rate of 97.3%.
The provincial graduation rate is at an all time high at 86.5%.
That's a jump of nearly 20 percentage points over the last several years.
Sherman says each student is more important than the statistics.
"We've also received money to be able to hire re-engagement workers and attendance counsellors more. So, if you have a student that disengages with us, we go out and we track them down, we make the phone calls and find out what's going on with your life," Sherman says.
Sherman says the public board never gives up on its students.
"We go through and say look we have this amount of students that have disengaged with us and we want to know why. Where are you? Where are we at? What can we do for you? How can we get you back with us and on the road to graduation?" says Sherman.
