VIDALIA — Oh the places Concordia Parish students will go!

And now the number of classmates they’ll be taking along on life’s journey, as Dr. Seuss so wistfully foretold, is higher than before.

The parish school district has raised its collective graduation rate by 4.4 percent from 2010 to 2011.

According to a report by the Louisiana Department of Education, Cohort graduation rates, which is a measure based on the percentage of students who enter ninth grade and graduate in four years, have increased at both the district and school levels.

Ferriday High school showed the most improvement with an increase of 12.3 percent.

Monterey High School had an increase of 11.7 percent and Vidalia High School had an increase of 7.4 percent.

The increase improved the parish’s rates from 66.1 in 2010 to 70.5 in 2011. The state’s average is 70.9.

Loretta Blankenstein, Concordia Parish School Superintendent, said in a press release the district hopes to continue the trend.

“Keeping students in school is one of our top priorities,” Blankenstein said. “Local educators and state education leaders have intensified their focus on improving graduation rates.”

As an attempt to increase graduation rates, the parish created a graduation coach position, which helps students who may be at risk of not graduating.

Rhonda Moore, Concordia Parish graduation coach is in the second year of helping students as graduation coach, and said it’s an exciting opportunity.

“When a student feels like he or she has been helped, they become more confident and they’re motivated to do better if they know that help is available for them if they’re struggling,” Moore said. “I’m just excited about helping students succeed.”

While graduating is the ultimate goal, Moore said she also has high expectations for students after graduation.

“It doesn’t matter if they’re going to the military, four-year university or technical college,” Moore said. “As long as they graduate high school and be successful in life.”

Paul Nelson, director of academic programs in the parish, said administrators placed a high emphasis on increasing graduation rates after seeing some low levels across the parish.

“We were disappointed so we’re putting some things in place now encouraging our school level people that we need to be more concerned about this,” Nelson said. “We’re trying to show that it’s important to everyone on staff.”

Nelson said graduation rates impact more than just the school.

“It’s important that kids graduate from school and when they don’t, not only is a bad thing for the school’s accountability stand point, but its also a bad thing for the community,” Nelson said. “We want to try and turn them into productive citizens.”

Nelson said another factor of increased graduation rates can be credited to the Taylor Opportunity Program for Students — or TOPS — which is a program operated by the Louisiana Office of Student Financial Assistance that offers Louisiana residents tuition or assistance money if they attend Louisiana Public Colleges and Universities or several other pre-approved technical, cosmetology or independent colleges or universities.

Students are required to complete a certain curriculum at their high schools, have a minimum required GPA and have scored at least a 20 on their ACT scores in order to be eligible for the money.

“Now there are more parents and community members that know about it and so they understand how important it is to them and they encourage their kids to do that,” Nelson said. “It’s a very nice thing for the students.”

To learn more about TOPS or other programs offered the Louisiana Office of Student Financial Assistance visit www.osfa.la.gov.