Math scores for Vicksburg Warren School District’s nearly 9,000 students increased again this past school year, according to test scores released Friday by the Mississippi Department of Education.

“I’m thrilled at the test scores,” VWSD Superintendent Dr. Elizabeth Duran Swinford said. “We still have a lot of work to do, but the gains are great. They’re good, solid gains. In some areas we had some drops, but we have to continue addressing it.”

The district has been ranked “At Risk of Failing” in each of the past two years and Swinford, who was hired in August, is hopeful the improved scores will earn it a higher label when the DOE issues the 2010-11 Accountability Ratings in September.

“Based on pure test scores, we’re hopeful because we’re so close to the next label,” she said. “With opportunities to improve, we think we have pretty solid test scores that we might be moving the district, finally, out of ‘At Risk of Failing.’”