The Vicksburg Warren School District received a grade of C in Mississippi’s retooled school rating system in statistics released today, up from the equivalent of a D last year, superintendent Dr. Elizabeth Swinford said this morning.

“That’s awesome,” Swinford said. “We were an F two years ago.”

The rating was in line with what school officials predicted when a preliminary report was released Aug. 6.

As compared with last year’s ratings, more of the state’s 152 public school districts showed improvement in the first year of the new system, which is now a five-step A-to-F grading scale. The bottom three ranks of the old system — Low Performing, At Risk of Failing and Failing — all now count as an F.

Swinford called the 9,000-student district’s rating a step in the right direction.

“When I got here, I received a district that had Fs,” Swinford said. “We were At Risk of Failing. Last year with a lot of work we came up to a D-rated school district. We were on Academic Watch, and that was a D. Now we’re a C school district. We’re now Successful. We’re aiming in the right direction, and we’re trying to give this city, county and community a school district that we can be proud of.”

The district’s graduation rate was 56.7 percent, a tad lower than the 57.35 percent in the earlier report.

Among individual schools, two rated a B, Bowmar and Bovina elementaries. Five rated a C, Beechwood and South Park elementaries, Vicksburg Intermediate, and Vicksburg Junior and Warren Central Junior high schools.

Five more scored Ds, Redwood and Warrenton elementaries, Vicksburg and Warren Central high schools, and Warren Central Intermediate.

Dana Road and Sherman Avenue, both of which have classes up to thirrd grade, are not rated because of separate testing standards for lower-grade students. They are among 70 elementary and primary schools statewide that received no rating.

The Claiborne County School District fell to an F rating in the new system after scoring a C last year. The South Delta School District grade rose to a B from last year’s D rating.

In 2011, 32 districts earned what are now counted as A’s and Bs. This year, 50 districts got those marks. And while 70 got what are now Ds and Fs last year, this year 57 rated that low. The number of C districts fell from 50 to 42.

The three districts rated A are Clinton, Enterprise and Pass Christian. All were star-rated districts in 2011.

The B tier, which had been called High Performing, expanded to 47 districts in part because the state Board of Education suspended graduation-rate requirements for a year.

Last year, a district had to graduate 75 percent of seniors or meet another measure of high school completion to reach that tier. Earning Bs and not Cs because of that change were 10 districts: Petal, Grenada, Itawamba County, Lowndes County, Alcorn County, Lauderdale County, Tupelo, Scott County, George County and Forrest County Agricultural High School.

“I am proud of the improvements made in many of our school districts, but with 66 percent graded at C or worse, clearly the Legislature’s work to reform our educational system is only beginning,” Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves said in a statement.

In eight districts the state has taken over, scores rose. Growing the most were those in Hazlehurst, by 15 points; Indianola by 19 points; and Sunflower County by 15 points.

The state is preparing to return Okolona, ranked F, and Hazlehurst, ranked D, to local control.

Three districts testing out curricula that don’t follow state standards — Clarksdale, Corinth and Gulfport — were not rated.

Private and parochial schools statewide are not judged by the same testing standards.